
Class _F45i 
Bnnk .R75 

Gopyriglit]^^ 



CDFlfRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



/ 



fTilson Club Publications 



NUMBER SEVEN. 



************************************************* 



THE CENTENARY 



OF 



KENTUCKY 

Wednesday, June i, 1892. 



***************************************^*:^:^^^^^^ 



By 

The Filson Club. 



The Centenary of Kentucky 



PROCEEDINGS 

AT THE CELEBR AT ION BY THE 

/ 

FILSON CLUB 

WEDNESDAY, JXJME 1, 1892 

OF THE 

ONE HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY 

OF THE ADMISSION OF 

KENTUCKY 

As an Independent State into the Federal Union 



LOUSVILLE, KY. 

JOHN P. MORTON & COMPANY 



CINCINNATI, OHIO 

ROBERT CLARKE & COMPANY 

1892 



^0 i.7^?^ 






COi^VRIOHT, 1882 
BY THE KILSON CLUB 



The Centenary oe Kentucky. 



THE FILSON CLUB, at its meeting in June, 1S91. 
determined to celebrate Wednesday, June i, 
1892, as the one hundredth anniversary of the 
separation of Kentucky from Virginia, and its admission 
into the Union as an independent state. An executive 
committee consisting of twelve members of the club was 
appointed, and to them was given full authority to arrange 
for such a celebration' as they might think proper. This 
committee consisted of — 



Reuben T. Durrett, . 
Thomas Speed, . . 
E. T. Halsev, 
J. Stoddard Johnston, 
Richard W. Knott, . 
Horatio W. Bruce, . 
John B. Castleman, 
Basil W. Duke, . . 
Andrew Cowan, . . 
William H. Whitsett, 
William J. Davis, . . 
James S. Pirtle, . . 



Chairman. 
Secretary. 
On Finances. 

Addresses. 

Toasts. 

Invitations. 

Reception. 

Banquet. 

Transportation. 

Correspondence. 

Music. 

Publication. 



4 The Kentucky Centenary. 

The committee at first contemplated the builduig of 
a pioneer fort in one of the Louisville parks, and placing 
in it for exhibition such mementoes of the time at which 
Kentucky became an independent state as could be pro- 
cured for this purpose by gift, loan, or purchase. It was 
found, however, that such an exhibition would be attended 
by heavier costs than it was deemed prudent to impose 
upon the members of the club, and it was abandoned. 
It was finally determined to limit the celebration to a 
historical address, a poem, and a banquet, at which se- 
lected toasts should be responded to by chosen speakers. 

In accordance with this simple programme, a goodly 
number of the members of the club and of citizens who 
were not members assembled at Macauley's Theater, at 
ten o'clock in the morning. The stage was occupied by 
venerable citizens who had passed or approached the 
seventieth mile-stone in life's journey, and some of whose 
long lives dated back almost to the birth of the state. 

Among these old citizens were Isaac R. Green (the 
Nestor of the band, aged ninety-three), Jas. S. Lithgow, 
Robt. J. Elliott, Americus Symmes, Dr. Thomas Bohannon, 
Dr. John Thruston, Isaac L. Hyatt, Hamilton Pope, Chas. 
S. Snead, Edwin FuUion, Patrick Bannon, L. D. Pearson, 
Frank Carter, Neville Bullitt, Rev. J. H. Heywood, Rev. 
E. T. Perkins, Rev. R. H. Rivers, Wm. D. Gallagher, 



Wednesday, ytuie /, i8g2. 5 

H. C. Caruth, Geo. W. Morris, Dr. E. A. Grant, Hon. 
Chas. Anderson, Theodore Brown, etc. 

In front of the stage was placed Eichorn's orchestra, 
with music selected and arranged for the occasion. After 
a number of appropriate airs had been played during 
the assembling of the audience, Colonel J. Stoddard 
Johnston, the vice-president of the club, called upon Rev. 
R. H. Rivers, a descendant by the mother's side from 
Samuel Henderson, one of the founders of Boonsborough, 
to open the proceedings with prayer. 

Dr. Rivers was assisted from his chair to the front 
of the stage, and offered the following prayer: 

Prayer of Dr. Rivers. 

" O, Lord, our Heavenly Father! we thank Thee for 
this privilege of celebrating the one hundredth anniversary 
of our existence as a state. We bless Thee that the 
Filson Club, prompted by patriotism and especially by 
love for the great State of Kentucky, has determined to 
celebrate in a proper manner this great anniversary. We 
thank Thee for the number of young people assembled 
with us on this occasion, so precious to every Kentuckian 
and so inviting to all Christian people. We pray that 
every thing may be conducted to Thy honor and glory. 



6 TJie Kentucky Ccitte7iary. 

We pray that the deeds of our ancestors may be so 
presented as to fire our hearts with the loftiest patriotism. 
For such ancestors, so self-denying, so devoted to the 
Dark and Bloody Ground, we adore Thee. For the 
Boones, the Galloways, the Hendersons, the Glarks, and 
all the rest, reaching back one hundred years, we most 
humbly and sincerely thank Thee. May we imitate their 
virtues, honor their memories, and profit by their example. 
Bless our o-reat and orowinfj state and all the other states 
belonging to this great Union. Bless this occasion. Be 
with Thy servant who shall carry us back to the historic 
past. May the characters presented, the deeds described, 
and the scenes pictured by him be a blessing to the 
young, a joy to the aged, and a profit to all. May the 
poetry written and which shall be spoken on this great 
occasion be full of imagination and glow with the grand- 
est and most patriotic thoughts. We beg Thee, our 
Father, to hear our prayer, bless our anniversary, prosper 
our state, and increase the glory of this great occasion. 
All this we ask in the name of Jesus Ghrist our Savior. 
Amen." 

After the opening prayer by Dr. Rivers, and " Home, 
Sweet Home " by the orchestra, Vice-President Johnston, 
in introducing Reuben T. Durrett, the president ol the 



Wednesday, yune i , iSg2. 7 

club, who had been chosen to make the historic address 
of the occasion, spoke as follows : 



Vice-President Johnston's Remarks. 

" Ladies and Gentlemen : — We are met to-day to 
commemorate the centennial of Kentucky's statehood. 

" It has been well said that a people who have not 
the pride to cherish and preserve the record and the 
memory of the heroic deeds of their ancestors, will soon 
cease to achieve deeds worthy of commemoration by their 
posterity. From the earliest period in the world's history, 
every nation which has filled one of its pages has been 
animated by the laudable spirit which has brought us 
here, and many which have ceased to exist still live in 
the monuments which their national pride has left to the 
wonder and admiration of posterit)-. The Filson Club, 
which to-day marks this one-hundredth milestone in our 
state's progress, is a historical society, founded in this 
city in 18S4, for the collection, preservation, and publica- 
tion of the history of Kentucky. Though but young, it 
has done valuable service in the line of its purpose, 
having already published si.x monographs upon subjects 
of great interest touching our early history, besides ac- 
cumulating much material of value to the future historian. 



8 The Kentucky Centenary. 

" To the zeal and patriotic pride of Reuben T. 
Durrett, the first and only president of the Filson Club, 
Kentucky will ever be indebted for his laborious efforts 
to preserve in durable form the history and traditions of 
the first grand epoch in the life of our beloved common- 
wealth. Most fitting is it that he should have been 
selected by the society which I have the honor to rep- 
resent to sum up in succinct form the deeds which we 
are here to commemorate, and it is with peculiar pride 
that I have the honor to present him to you, and to 
bespeak for him your respectful attention." 




REUBEN T. DURRETT, 



PKESIIDKNT OK THE RILS<->>J CLUB. 



Wednesday, yzine i, i8g2. 



/ 

President Durrett's Address. 



THE STATE OF KENTUCKY: ITS DISCOVERY, SETTLEMENT, 
AUTONOMY, AND PROGRESS FOR A HUNDRED YEARS. 



ONE hundred years ago Kentucky became an in- 
dependent state, and we have assembled, under 
the auspices of the Filson Chib, for the pur- 
pose of commemorating the event. As Kentuckians, we 
naturall)- feel that our commonwealth deserves this con- 
sideration ; but there are others outside of Kentucky who 
should have kindred feelings. Kentucky has a history 
not exclusively her own, but national as well as local. 
She blazed the untried way by which her sister states 
were to advance and form that network of sovereignties 
stretching from the Ohio river to the Pacific ocean. 
Under the lead of George Rogers Clark, the greatest 
military man who ever commanded in the West, her 
brave militia * conquered that vast territory out of which 
have been carved the glorious States of Illinois, Indiana, 

* Most of the soldiers under General Clark, when he took Kas- 



lo The Kentucky Centenary. 

Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and that part of Minnesota 
on this side of the Mississippi. It was the persistence 
of her sons for the freedom of the Mississippi river which 
led to the purchase of Louisiana and the consequent 
opening of the doors of the Republic for extended do- 
main. Her glorious deeds are so blended with our 
national history that sixty millions of freemen, wherever 
they may be in our broad land to-day, might well 
partake of our feelings while we celebrate this one 
hundredth anniversary of our statehood. 

kaskia in 1778, were Virginians, and Kentucky was a part of Virginia. 
While these soldiers, in strict historic language, may not be called 
Kentucky militia at that date, yet many of them, though marching 
from parts of the country other than Kentucky, like Edward Bulger, 
James Brown, James Bryan, Josejih Bowman, John Boyle, Abram 
Chaplain, Richard Chenowith, Thomas Denton, Leonard Helm, Silas 
Harlan, Simon Kenton, Benjamin Lynn, Thomas Quirk, and others, 
had already selected lands in Kentucky for their future homes; and 
many others of them became citizens of Kentucky alter the Illinois 
conquest. There were but few of Clark's volunteers when he began 
the Illinois campaign who were not then or did not afterward become 
citizens of Kentucky. Their leader, Ceneral Clark, was already a 
Kentuckian by acquiring lands here and making it his home, and it 
is not going too far to call his followers Kentuckians under such 
circumstances. 



Wednesday, jfune i , i8g2. 1 1 



The Discovery of Kentucky. 

For one hundred and eighty-five years after the first 
settlement at Jamestown. Kentucky was a part of \'ir- 
ginia, and during four-fifths of this long period was an 
unknown land. The Virginians along the Atlantic slope 
showed no early disposition to settle beyond the mount- 
ains that walled them in on the west. They erected 
their manor houses and built their tobacco barns on the 
rich lands of rivers that flowed from the mountains to 
the sea, and were content. What they had to sell the 
ocean would bear to foreign marts, and what they wanted 
to buy the same ocean would bring to their doors. 
There were no known inducements in the unknown lands 
beyond the mountains to entice them to the dangers and 
the hardships of a wilderness filled with wild animals and 
still wilder savages. 

But whether the Virginians would go to the discov- 
ery of Kentucky or not, the country was so located 
that to remain unknown was impossible. The great 
Mississippi and the beautiful Ohio were upon its borders 
for hundreds of miles, while their tributaries penetrated 
thousands of miles within. Upon these rivers hunters 
and traders and adventurers were to paddle their canoes 



12 The Kentucky Centenary. 

in spite of dangers, and die fair land of Kentuclcy could 
not indefinitely escape their eyes. 

Two explorers of different nationalities, but in pursuit 
of the same wild hope of a water way across the con- 
tinent to the Pacific ocean, discovered Kentucky almost 
at the same time. They were Captain Thomas Batts, a 
Virginian, of whom nothing but this discovery is known, 
and Robert Cavalier de la Salle, a distinguished French- 
man, whose explorations in America made him known in 
both hemispheres. 

The Discovery of Captain Batts. 

In 1727, Dr. Daniel Coxe published in London a 
description of the Province of Carolana, which had been 
given to Sir Robt. Heath by Charles First, in 1630. It 
extended from the thirty-first to the thirty-sixth degree of 
north latitude, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean. 
The predecessors of Dr. Coxe are represented in this 
book as having made important explorations in their 
provinces, and the statement is made that between the 
years 1654 and 1664, a Colonel Wood, living at the Falls 
of the James river, in Virginia, had discovered different 
branches of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Colonel 
Wood could hardly have discovered different branches 



Wednesdny, yune i, i8g2. 13 

of the Ohio in the neighborhood of Carolana without 
being in Kentuclcy, and if this statement is true, he was 
probably the first white man who ever rambled through 
the dark forests of this country. It is possible, however, 
that Dr. Coxe has credited Colonel Wood with an ex- 
ploration that was made by Captain Thomas Batts at a 
little later date. In 1671, General Abraham Wood, by 
the authority of Governor Berkely, sent Captain Thomas 
Batts with a party of explorers to the west of the Appa- 
lachian mountains in search of a river that might lead 
across the continent to China. The journal of their 
route is rendered obscure by meager descriptions and 
the changes of the country and the names since it was 
written, but it is possible that they went to the Roanoke 
and ascending to its headwaters, crossed over to the 
sources of the Kanawha, which they descended to its 
falls. Whether they wandered southward to the Big 
Sandy and crossed over into Kentucky, we can not de- 
termine from their journal ; but whether they did so or 
not, they were in that part of Virginia of which Ken- 
tucky was a part, and their discoveries would open the 
way to the one as well as to the other.* 

* Manuscript Journal of Captain Batts, 167 1. This journal was 
published in the third volume of the "Documents Relative to the 
Colonial History of New York," page 193. I have compared this 



14 The Kentucky Centenary. 



The Discovery of La Salle. 

Less doubtfully connected with the discovery of 
Kentucky is the name and fame of La Salle, one of the 
greatest explorers of the seventeenth century. He was 
born in the old city of Rouen in 1643, ^"d at the age 
of twenty-three came to America to devote his great 
enthusiasm and indomitable energy to the solution of 
the problem of a transcontinental river running toward 
China. Columbus had crossed the Atlantic a century and 
three-quarters before with the belief that he had found 
India, and when this delusion had faded before the light 
of actual discovery, the continent of North America was 
still believed to contain a great river running across to 
the Pacific ocean. La Salle had strong hopes of finding 
this river, and in 1669 some Seneca Indians hastened 
his plans by telling him that there was a river that rose 
in their country and wound its way southward and west- 
ward to the distant sea. This was evidently e.xtending 
the Alleghany, the Ohio, and the Mississippi into one 
grand river, and it so fired the imagination of Sa Salle 
that he at once began preparations to explore it. He 

publication with my manuscript copy and found them to be essentially 
the same. 



Wednesday, yune /, i8g2. i 5 

entered the Alleghany by a tributary near its source, 
and followed it and the Ohio through the wild forests 
on their banks until he reached the falls where Louisville 
now stands.* In making this long journey, he was the 
discoverer of Kentucky from the Big Sandy to the rapids 
of the Ohio, and was the first white man whose eyes 
looked eastward from the beautiful river to the Bluegrass 
land, which forms the garden spot of the state. He had 

* In 1808, while digging the foundation of the Tarascon Mill in 
that part of Louisville known as Shipping Port, an iron ax was found 
under the center of a sycamore, the trunk of which was six feet in 
diameter, and the roots of which extended for forty feet in every 
direction. The ax was made by bending a flat bar of iron over a 
cylinder to make a hole for the handle in one end, and then welding 
the two sides together and hammering them to a cutting edge. It 
could not have been placed where it was found after the tree grew, 
and must, therefore, have fallen there about the time of the seed 
from which the tree grew over it. The annulations of the tree were 
counted and found to be two hundred, which, according to the then 
mode of computation, made the tree two hundred years old. It is 
known, however, that the sycamore will in some years show more 
than one annulation and thus indicate more than one year's growth ; 
and if we allow one-third of these two hundred annulations to have 
been produced in that way, we shall have this tree to have begun 
its growth about the time that La Salle was at the falls. Of course, 
any Indian might have brought this ax from the white settlements in 
Canada or on the Atlantic ; but so might La Salle have brought it 



1 6 The Kentucky Centenary. 

not reached China, nor sailed upon a river that led 
thereto, but he had discovered a country whose fame in 
after years would even extend to the Celestial Empire. 
He had made a discovery upon which France would 
found a claim to the valley of the Mississippi and con- 
tend for it against England in a mighty war that would 
not only involve America, but Europe as well. 

there and left it when he was at the falls, probably in 1669 or 1670. 
The Indians who had accompanied La Salle as guides deserted him 
at the falls, and he was left to make his way back home alone. 
Under such circumstances, he would naturally divest himself of every 
incumbrance not absolutely necessary to his homeward journey, and 
might have left this ax as well as any other article. At the point 
where the ax was found there is a beautiful view of the rapids, and 
especially of that part just above Goose Island where, when the river 
is low, there is a cataract or perpendicular fall of eight feet, or at 
least there was a few years ago, before the United States began 
changing the channel of the river. Possibly, La Salle, standing at 
this point and looking northwestwardly above Goose Island, saw this 
fall or cataract, and spoke of it as a great fall. His words are that : 
"II la suivit jusqu'a un endroit ou elle tombe de fort haut." That 
is to say, he followed the Ohio river until he came to a jilace where 
it fell from a great height — where there was a great fall. Possibly, 
La Salle, with his wonderfully observant eye, discovered that the Ohio 
made a fall of more than twenty feet in passing over the rapids; but 
the best that can be said of his calling the rapids a "tombe de fort 
haut " is that he used very unallowable words. 



Wechtesday, yiine /, i8g2. 17 



OiHtK Discoveries. 

Other discoveries followed those of La Salle and 
Batts, but besides being doubtful, like that attributed to 
Moscoso in 1543, and to the twenty-three Spaniards in 
1669, and to John Sailing in 1730, they added nothing 
to the knowledge of the country, until toward the middle 
of the eighteenth century. France and England at this 
time seem to have simultaneously resolved to make a 
supreme struggle for the sovereignty of their discoveries 
in the Mississippi valley. Both of these great powers 
claimed that their titles were perfect, but neither paid 
the least regard to the claim of the other. 

French Possessions in North America. 

The peace of Aix la Chapelle, in 1 748, left the 
boundaries of France and England in America as unde- 
termined as they were when the war for the succession 
began. France claimed an empire in America that a 
king might well have coveted. Prom the founding of 
Quebec by Champlain, in 1608, she had pushed her 
acquisitions westwardly and southwardly for a stupendous 
extent of territory. She had followed the St. Lawrence 



1 8 The Kentucky Centenary. 

to the lakes, and progressed along these inland seas 
until she had reached a branch of the Mississippi. In 
1682, she had gone down this mighty river to its mouth, 
and was now claimant of all the lands in North America 
watered by the St. Lawrence and Mississippi and their 
countless tributaries. Her domain extended from the 
warm waters of the Gulf of Me.xico to the eternal ice 
fields of Canada, and from the crest of the Appalachian 
mountains on the east to the fabled Quivera on the west. 
In the great rivers St. Lawrence and Mississippi, she 
held the keys of the continent, and she was building 
forts along its lakes and principal rivers for the purpose 
of locking out the rest of the world from her possessions. 
There was the ominous fact, seemingly unobserved by 
her, that after a hundred and forty years of rule, from 
her first settlement at Quebec, she had not been able 
to seat a hundred thousand inhabitants in this boundless 
empire. Such a number was hardly equal to the hold- 
ing of such a domain ; but few as they were, they were 
united in their determination to hold the country, and 
could be made marvelously effective in defense. Gallisso- 
niere, the governor, with his court upon the barren rock 
of Quebec, mimicked as well as he could the splendors 
of Versailles, and the inhabitants of New France knew 
nothing but to honor and obey his commands. Many 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 19 

of the Indians, moreover, were friendly to the French, 
and with the scalping-knives and tomakavvks of numerous 
tribes of savages, the few French fusils that could be 
mustered might be many times multiplied. 

Extent of the Virginia Colony. 

While France was claiming this vast empire, and 
building forts and hiring savages to defend it, the Vir- 
ginians were not unmindful of the dlaim they had to 
a part of it by their charter from King James. This 
charter gave them a frontage of four hundred miles on 
the Atlantic ocean, and all the land between a southern 
line drawn westwardly and a northern line drawn north- 
westwardly through the continent to the Pacific ocean. 
On these lands the French had already built and fortified 
Kaskaskia and Fort Chartres, and Cahokia and Vincennes 
and Detroit, and were preparing to build and fortify 
other places. They had driven the English traders away, 
and buried leaden plates at the mouths of the rivers 
along the Ohio, as evidence of their claim to the 
country. There was enough of the foreshadowing of war 
in these movements of the seemingly complaisant and 
cordial French, who were chasseing and bowing over the 
the country while really at war, to arouse the fighting 



20 The Kentucky Centenary. 

cavaliers of Virginia from a slumber which two centuries 
of antagonistic discoveries had not been able to disturb. 
On that part of Virginia which sloped eastward)}' from 
the mountains to the Atlantic were one hundred and sev- 
enty-five thousand freemen and one hundred and twenty- 
five thousand slaves, and of this number they thought 
enough could be spared to plant colonies in the Missis- 
sippi valley that would drive out the French and keep 
them out. It was only a question with the Virginians 
as to how this population was to be seated on the lands 
claimed by the French, and how it could be most 
speedily accomplished. They solved this question in 
their own way, according to precedents hoary with age, 
and decided to utilize powerful companies, to which the 
public lands should be given as a consideration for the 
speedy seating of occupants. A number of these land 
companies were formed, but as only two of them, the 
Loyal Company and the Ohio Company, are particularly 
connected with Kentucky history, they alone need be 
mentioned on this occasion. 



H^ednesday, yune i, i8g2. 21 



The Loyal Company and the First White Settle- 
ment IN Kentucky. 

At a meeting of the Virginia Council, July 12, 1749, 
the Loyal Company was authorized to enter and survey 
eight hundred thousand acres of the public lands of 
Virginia for the purpose of seating families upon them. 
The lands were to be located north of the dividing line 
between V^irginia and North Carolina, and were to extend 
to the west for their quantity. The company was to 
begin at once to locate its lands and settle occupants 
upon them, and was to have four years to make its 
surveys and returns. Dr. Thomas Walker, one of the 
most learned and accomplished men ol his times, was 
chosen by the company to locate its lands. He at 
once organized a company of explorers, consisting of 
himself and five others. None of the names of his 
assistants have been preserved in his journal, except 
Ambrose Powell, Colby Chew, and a man named Tom- 
linson. On the i6th of March, 1750, they began their 
journey toward the line which then divided Virginia from 
North Carolina. They went up a branch of the Roanoke 
and crossed over to the Holston, which they descended 
to its forks. They then directed their course across 



2 2 The Kentucky Centenafy. 

Clinch and Powell rivers, and entered Kentucky through 
Cumberland Gap. They then went up Cumberland river, 
near to where the city of Barbourville now stands, and 
on the north-west side of the river, a little above what 
is now known as Swan Pond, selected the site of a 
house to be erected as the head-quarters of their settle- 
ment. Here a piece of land was cleared, and a log- 
house twelve by eight feet built, and corn and peach 
stones planted. The house was finished on the 25th of 
April, 1750, and a settlement was thus begun in the 
wilderness of Kentucky.* This was the first house ever 
built in the state by white men, with the possible excep- 
tion of some cabins by the French and Indians at the 
mouth of the Scioto, when a great flood drove them 
from the lowlands on the Ohio side to the highlands on 
the Kentucky side of the river. It was twenty-four years 

=•= ]ournal of an Exploration in the Spring of the year 1750, by 
Dr. 'rhomas Walker, of Virginia. This journal remained in manuscript 
until 1S88, when a limited edition of it, edited by William Cabell 
Rives, a de.scendant of Dr. Walker, was published by Little, Brown & 
Co.. of Boston. There is an unfortunate omission of ten days of the 
journal in the ])ublication, and this omission, yet more unfortunately 
for Kentuckians, occurs just at the time he entered the state through 
Cumberland Gap. Singularly enough, I have a manuscript copy of 
this journal in which the same omission occurs. 



Wechiesday, yune I , i8q2. 23 

before a cabin was erected at Harrodsburg or anywhere 
else in the state by the early settlers. Our historians 
have failed to mention this first settlement in Kentucky, 
but it was not overlooked by the geographers of its day. 
It was laid down upon all the maps of the country after 
1750, and so continued until the beginning of the present 
century. No place was more conspicuous on the early 
maps of the countr\- than this settlement of Walker on 
the Cumberland. 

The Loyal Company was not fortunate in the time 
at which its settlement was begun. Before its land could 
be located and surveyed and occupied b) the settlers, 
the French and Indian War was upon them, and delayed 
their undertaking until the peace of 1763. Then the 
king's proclamation, forbidding settlements on lands be- 
yond the sources of rivers that entered the Atlantic 
ocean, delayed them for another ten years. And finally 
the Revolutionary War arrested this, as it did all other 
enterprises of the kind that were in progress when hos- 
tilities began. At the October session of the Virginia 
legislature, in 1778, the petition of Dr. Walker in behalf 
of his company was acted upon, when it was shown that 
the company had surveyed 201,554 acres of their grant, 
and left unsurveyed 598,446 acres. Of the lands sur- 



24 The Kentucky Centenary. 

veyed, the company was allowed to complete their title 
to 45,390 acres only.* 



The Ohio Company. 

Soon after Dr. Walker, in behalf of the Loyal Com- 
pany, had passed through Eastern Kentucky from south 
to north, he was followed by Christopher Gist,f who, in 
behalf of the Ohio Company, traversed Central Kentucky 
from west to east. The Ohio Company was authorized 
by the home government to select five hundred thousand 
acres of land on both sides of the Ohio river, for the 
purpose of settling families upon them. Gist was sent 
out by this company to select these lands, and in his 
explorations he entered Kentucky at the mouth of the 
Scioto, March 13, 1751. He made his way to the 

* Journal of the House of Delegates of the Commonwealth of 
Virginia, October Session, 1778. 

fA lournal of Christopher Gist's Journey, 1750-51. I have a 
manuscript copy of this journal, and also Pownall's "Topographical 
Description of North America," published at London in 1776, in which 
it appears. 1 liave never seen it elsewhere. Gist evidently went 
through Kentucky with his compass, as he gives the courses and dis- 
tances of his route. It differs very widely from Walker's journal in 
this ]iarticular, there being nothing in the journal of Walker to indicate 
that he had a compass with him. 



H^edjiesdriy , yinie i, i8g2. 25 

Licking river, wliich he ascended, and then crossed the 
headwaters of the Kentvicky river, and went out of the 
state where Dr. Walker had entered it. In iiis wander- 
ings from west to east, he saw some of the best as well 
as some of the worst land. This company located two 
hundred thousand acres upon the Licking river, but be- 
fore families could be settled upon them, the French and 
Indian War and the king's proclamation and the Revo- 
lutionary War arrested their enterprise, as they had that 
of the Loyal Company. When they finally appealed to 
the legislature for titles to their land, they stood before 
a new race of law-makers, and were shorn of the profits 
of their costly undertaking, as the Loyal Company had 
been. 

While, however, neither the Loyal nor the Ohio 
Company had been a financial success, and neither had 
peopled the Mississippi valley with inhabitants to drive 
off and keep away the French, both had contributed to 
the opening of the way to the settlement of Kentucky. 
In behalf of their respective companies, Walker and Gist 
had gone beyond the forbidding mountains that frowned 
like an impassable wall on the west of inhabited Virginia, 
and had seen the inviting country beyond, that had not 
been seen before. They had kept journals of their 
routes, and could verify all that had passed before their 



2 6 The Kentucky Centenary. 

watchful eyes. They had seen Kentucky as it came from 
the Creator's hands, in all its wild splendors of soil and 
tree and stream. And what a grand sight it was ! Let 
us, in imagination, go back one hundred and forty-two 
years, and look upon Kentucky as Walker and Gist saw 
it, in 1750-51. 

View of Primeval Kentucky. 

From the summit of the Appalachian mountains on 
the east, declivities lead down two thousand feet to a 
plateau that gracefully undulates for five hundred miles 
to the margins of the Ohio and the Mississippi rivers 
on the west. Descending through deep cut channels 
from their mountain springs, the Sandy, the Licking, the 
Kentucky, the Salt, the Green, and the Cumberland rivers 
roll their navigable waters for hundreds of miles through 
soils as exhuberant as the famous delta ol the Nile. 
Over an area that millions might inhabit, of mountain 
and hill and plain and valley, stands a dark forest ol 
oak and beech and ash and hickory and walnut and 
cherry and maple and sycamore and linden and cedar and 
pine, with lofty poplars towering above like hoary senti- 
nels of the centuries that have marked their growth. 
Here and there, where the trees of the forest cast not 



Wednesday', yune /, i8g2. 27 

their shadow, the cane and the clover and the rye and 
the bkiegrass cover the soil like emerald isles in the 
forest seas. Toward the sunset, between the Salt and 
the Green rivers, spreads out for miles a treeless land 
covered with a forest of herbage, on which countless 
buffalo and deer forever feed. The woods are full of 
wild animals, the rivers swarm with endless varieties of 
fish, and the air is darkened with flocks of birds. From 
out the earth burst springs whose waters, warmed by the 
summer's sun, whiten their channels with salt, and deep 
down beneath the surface are mysterious caverns cut out 
by subterranean streams, in which are deposited beds of 
saltpeter. Beneath the hills and mountains are strata of 
coal and beds of iron and quarries of stone, and over 
all hangs a bright sky tempered by genial airs. As if 
to add to the picturesqueness of the scene, there are 
numerous mounds, which were reared in the distant past 
by a long ago people who had become mighty in the 
land and passed away without leaving a history, a tra- 
dition, or a name. On the mountain sides, the rhodo- 
dendron and the Calmia latifolia display their charming 
blossoms ; in the valleys, the magnolia contrasts the snow 
of its huge corolla with the scarlet of the delicate car- 
dinal tlower; and every-where on the hills and plains, 
wild tlowers of infinite form and color lend enchantment 



2 8 The Kentucky Centenary. 

to the view. It is "a land of brooks, of water, of 
fountains and depths that spring out of the valleys and 
hills." 

Practical Explorers Visit Kentucky. 

After Walker and Gist, a new order of explorers 
began to visit Kentucky. They had none of the science 
or learning of their predecessors, but they had an eye 
for fine trees and rich lands and navigable rivers and 
abundance of game. They were a kind of hunting, 
trading, and roving adventurers, whose accounts of what 
they saw were finally destined to inaugurate the settle- 
ment of the country. 

In 1766, Colonel James Smith, not long from Indian 
captivity, wandered through the southern part of Ken- 
tucky, and if he did not eflect a settlement, he performed 
an early recorded surgical operation in the state by ex- 
tracting from his foot a piece of cane with a pair of 
bullet molds. The next year, John Findley, the fore- 
runner of Boone, was in the northern part of the state 
tradiner with the Indians, and at the same time James 
Harrod* and Michael Stoner were in the southern part. 

* James Harrod was one of the most important of the early set- 
tlers of Kentucky. His explorations of tlie country were little inferior 
to those of Boone, and he had a kindly heart for the many woes to 



Wednesday, yuiic /, iS(j2. 29 

At last, in 1769, Daniel IJoone,* a man without a 
superior in that woodcralt which pursues its way throug^h 
the trackless forest, and that cunning which baffles the 
wily savage, was in Kentucky. He wandered from place 
to place, and gave names to unknown objects which they 
were to bear for all time to come. He was a second 
Adam in another Eden. He gathered that knowledge 
of the country which led to its purchase by the Tran- 
sylvania Colony, and which promoted him to positions 

which the pioneers were subjected. He disappeared from the hving 
in the great forest where he was hunting, and no one knows the time 
or the manner of his death. His widow beHeved he had been mur- 
dered by a man named Bridges, with whom he had been induced to 
go in search of the mystical Swift's silver mine. He disappeared from 
the living in 1793, but nothing definite is known of the time or the 
manner of his going. 

* Joseph Bryant, the father-in-law of Daniel Boone, gave to Mr. 
McAfee an explanation worth preserving as to how the old pioneer 
made so many narrow escapes from the Indians. He carried in a 
leather bag fastened about his neck a commission in the British service, 
which had been given him by Lord Dunmore. Whenever he got into 
a tight place among the Indians, he exhibited this commission, which 
was proof sufficient to them that Boone was the friend of the British 
and the enemy of the colonists. On seeing this token, the Indians 
released him instead of scalping him. This anecdote is preserved 
by Robert B. McAfee, in his autobiography, which has never been 
published. 



30 The Kentucky Centenary. 

in which he made a name known to all the civilized 
nations of the earth. 

While Boone was yet in Kentucky, a party of forty 
others crossed the mountains from Virginia and North 
Carolina, and hunted and trapped and explored until they 
got the name of the Long Hunters. In 1771, Simon 
Kenton, who was such a thwarter of the plans of the 
Indians as to secure from them the name of "Old Horse 
Steal," as the most odious epithet they could apply to 
him, was in the northern part of the state, looking for 
the cane lands of which he had heard so much. Most 
of these hunters and traders and explorers were men of 
more than average parts, and when they went back home 
with glowing accounts of what they had seen in Ken- 
tucky, the surveyors began to enter the state and to run 
off land for settlers. 

Surveyors and Land Owners in Kentucky. 

In 1772, patents were issued to John Fry for lands 
in Lawrence and Greenup counties, said, without con- 
clusive authority, to have been surveyed by the great 
Washington himself; but the surveyors whose work led 
to prompt and permanent settlements did not reach Ken- 
tucky until the following year. 



IVednesday, yiine i, iSg2. 31 

In 1773, Captain Thomas Bullitt,* at the head of one 
company, and Hancock Taylor, at the head ol another, 
were in Kentucky for the purpose of surveying lands for 
owners who intended to occupy them themselves, or to 
place others upon them. The two companies came to- 
gether down the Ohio, from the mouth of the Kanawha 
to the mouth of the Kentucky, where they separated. 
On their way down the Ohio, they joined in making 
some surveys of lands and the laying off of several 
towns. They laid oft a town in Lewis county, near 
where Vanceburg now stands ; another in Bracken, at the 
mouth of Locust creek ; and a third in Boone county, 
in the big bend of the Ohio, near where Francesville 
now stands. The Taylor Company ascended the Ken- 

* Captain Thomas Bullitt, whose name is inseparably connected 
with the origin of the City of Louisville, was born in Fauquier county, 
Virginia, in 1730. He was a gallant soldier in the French and Indian 
Wars, and by his skill and courage, in 1758, he saved from destruction 
the remnant of General Grant's army near Fort Duquesne. At the 
close of the French and Indian Wars, he was retained in the colonial 
service, and became tlie adjutant-general of the Virginia militia. When 
the Revolutionary War broke out, he was made adjutant-general of 
the Southern Department. His first service was the defeat of Lord 
Dunmore at the Great Bridge. He became dissatisfied with the service 
because of some disagreement with General Washington, and resigned. 
He died at his home in Fauquier county, Virginia, in 1778. 



32 



The Kcntitcky Ccnleuaiy. 



tucky and made a survey where Frankfort now stands, 
and several in Mercer county, afterward occupied by the 
McAfees. The BulHtt Company went down the Ohio to 
the falls, where they made numerous surveys, one of 
which was two thousand acres for Dr. John Connolly. 
On this Connolly survey, Bullitt laid off a town in 
August, 1773, which afterward became the City of Louis- 
ville. Connolly and Campbell, who had bought of Con- 
nolly an interest in his lands at the falls, advertised lots 
for sale in this town at the falls in 1774, and in 1775 it 
was occupied by Sanders Stuart and others, sent out by 
the proprietors for that purpose. They also surveyed a 
tract of one thousand four hundred acres for John Cowan 
on the Ohio, above the falls, opposite Twelve-mile Island. 
Cowan built a house and raised corn on this land in 
1774, and for these improvements secured a settlement 
right to four hundred acres, and a preemption right for 
one thousand acres, which made his one thousand four 
hundred. 

Upon numerous other surveys made by Bullitt in 
1773, and b)' Taylor and Floyd and Douglas and Hite 
the following year, settlements began to be made as early 
as 1774. As evidence of the intended occupancy, log 
cabins were erected and corn planted as soon as this 
work could be done. The style of house was not elab- 



Wednesday, yn7ie i, iSg2. 33 

orate and was easily built. The trunks of trees in the 
surrounding forest, cut from eight to sixteen feet in 
length and laid one above the other in a square or 
parallelogram, with notched corners, so as to form four 
walls from eight to ten teet high, covered with boards 
held down by poles, with a small opening for a window, 
a larger one for a door, and one still more ample for 
a fire-place, presented the conventional settler's cabin of 
the times. Boone built a similar house on Red river in 
1 769, and Bullitt erected another at the mouth of Bear- 
grass in 1773. But the former was a hunter's lodge, 
and the latter a surveyor's camp, not intended for per- 
manent occupancy. 

Harrodsburg and the Settlements of 1774. 

In 1774, a town was laid out by James Harrod 
and the forty explorers who accompanied him, and a 
number of log cabins erected, which afterward became 
Harrodsburg. Undue importance has been given these 
Harrodsburg cabins of 1774. They have been claimed 
as proof of the first settlement in the state at this point. 
The truth of history, however, can hardly admit of such 
a conclusion. Besides being twenty-four years younger 
than the house built by Dr. Walker on the Cumberland 



34 The Kenhtcky Centenary. 

in 1750, there were numerous other cabins erected in 
different parts of the state at the same time. Cases 
reported b)- Hughes and Hardin and Snead and Bibb in 
our early Court of Appeals show, upon the sworn tes- 
timony of witnesses who helped to build the houses, or 
saw them after they were erected, that Martin Stall built 
a house on the east fork of Salt river in 1774; that 
Thomas Quirk, William Crow, and John Crawford built 
cabins on Dick's river in 1774; that Isaac Taylor and 
Silas Harlan built houses on Salt river in 1774; that 
John Crow built a house near Danville in 1774; and 
that James Brown erected another at the same time and 
place. Other instances of the improvement of lands by 
the building of houses upon them with the view ot per- 
manent occupancy might be cited, but these are enough 
to show that Harrodsburg can claim no e.xclusive honors 
in this line. None of the houses, either in Harrodsburg 
or elsewhere, in 1774. were continuously occupied, on 
account of the hostility of the Indians, but all of them 
were built about the same time and lor the same pur- 
pose, and must equally share the honor ol the early 
settlement ot the state. 



Wednesday, June i, i8g2. 35 



The Settlements of 177'). 

In 1775, settlers began to come into the state with 
a rapidity to make up for the tardiness with which they 
had previously appeared. They came down the Ohio in 
well loaded canoes and llat-boats ; they came over the 
mountains, through Cumberland Gap, in companies, afoot 
and on horseback. In March, 1775, the McAfees re- 
sumed improvements on their lands on Salt river, and 
James Harrod, with his company increased to fifty, re- 
turned to the cabins at Harrodsburg and the Iioiling 
Spring. In April, 1775, Daniel Boone, with his company 
of twenty, reached the Kentucky river, and began the 
building of Boonsborough, and in a short time thereafter 
was joined by Richard Henderson, with his company of 
thirty. There were now more than one hundred and 
fifty immigrants in Kentucky, but not a female among 
them. In September, 1775, however, the wife and chil- 
dren of Daniel Boone reached Boonsborough, and about 
the same time the wife and children of Hugh McGary, 
Thomas Denton, and Richa^d Hogan arrived at Harrods- 
burg. There were now husbands and wives, parents and 
children, brothers and sisters, among the settlers, and 
immigration continued so rapidly that at the end of ten 



1 



6 TAe Kejttticky Centenary. 



years there were enough inhabitants to apply to Virginia 
for a separate government. 

This rapid settlement in 1775 was greatly assisted 
by Richard Henderson & Co., who had taken the name 
of the Transylvania Colony. Not only did they bring a 
large number of settlers into the country, but they 
founded Boonsborough and fortified it for protection, and 
supplied not only their own people, but those of other 
settlements, with powder and lead and food and clothing. 
They attempted to establish a proprietary government in 
Kentucky and failed. But there was so much romance 
as well as reality about their undertaking, that it will 
always make an interesting chapter in Kentucky history, 
and demands our attention on this occasion. 

The Transylvania Colony. 

On the 17th of March, 1775, this company, consist- 
ing of Richard Henderson and eight other prominent 
citizens,* met at Wataga, then in North Carolina but now 

* The eight other gentlemen associated with Richard Henderson 
in this gigantic enterprise were John Luttrell, Nathaniel Hart, Thomas 
Hart, Llavid Hart, ^Vm. Johnston, John Williams, James Hogg, and 
Leonard Hendly Bullock. They were all citizens of North Carolina 
and men of property and social positions. 



Wednesday, JiLiic /, i8g2. 37 

in Tennessee, and took a deed from the Cherokee In- 
dians for the greater part of the State of Kentucky. The • 
outlines of this grant began at the mouth of the Ken- 
tucky river, and running with that stream and its northerly 
branch to its source, thence followed the crest of the 
Appalachian mountains to the source of the Cumberland 
river, thence down that river to the Ohio, thence up the 
Ohio to the beginning.* This was not such a grant as 
had been obtained from the kings of England for the Vir- 
ginia and the Carolana colonies, but it was far beyond 
the domain of such modern companies as the Loyal, 
the Ohio, the Indiana, etc. It embraced something like 

* Why Richard Henderson & Co. should have given the name of 
Transylvania to their colony is a mystery. Transylvania, meaning 
across or beyond the woods, did not indicate their colony, which was 
in the midst of the woods, or rather the woods themselves. The deed 
which the Cherokees gave them for their colony preserved the beautiful 
Indian name Chenoa for Kentucky, and why they should not have ijer- 
petuated it is strange. Had they named their colony Chenoa, it is 
possible that those who came after them would have perpetuated it, 
but the pedagogical name of Transylvania which they gave it perished 
with their enterprise, as it deserved. If they did not like the Cherokee 
name Chenoa preserved in their deed to the country, there was the 
name Kentucky also mentioned in the same deed, and which those 
who came after them adopted. Why our people, however, should have 
adopted the name Kentucky, and then attached to it the unpleasant 



38 The Kentucky Centenary. 

twenty millions of acres, and cost the company, accord- 
ing to the consideration expressed in the deed, the sum 
of ten thousand pounds sterling. This would equal about 
^50,000 of our money, and made the land cost about 
one-fourth of one cent per acre. 

These enterprising gentlemen either forgot or disre- 
garded the time-honored policy of Virginia not to permit 
private individuals to purchase lands from the Indians 
within her domain. As the Indians were pressed farther 
and farther back from the Atlantic, their lands were ob- 
tained for the colony; and as early as 1705, an act was 
passed by the legislature forbidding private citizens from 

meaning of "dark and bloody ground," is another mystery. Kentucky 
is from the Iroquois word kentakc, mcining the prairie or meadow land. 
The name probably originated in those treeless stretches of country 
between the Salt and the Green rivers, which our ancestors called 
barrens. The Indians in early times burnt the trees off these lands 
and then designated them by kcnhikc, meaning the meadow or prairie 
lands. It is possible that the epithet "dark and bloody" was fastened 
to Kentucky from what was said by the Dragging Canoe to Colonel 
Henderson at the treaty of ^Vataga. This Indian chief told Henderson 
that the lands south of the Kentucky river were "bloody ground and 
would be dark and difficult to settle." This exjiression, howexer, had 
no reference to the name of the country, and was only used to per- 
suade Henderson & (Jo. not to insist upon the purchase of Kentucky 
south of the Kentucky river, but to take it north of that stream. 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 39 

acquiring lands from the Indians. When Virginia de- 
clared herself independent of England and made a con- 
stitution for herself in 1776, she inserted this provision: 
" No purchase of land shall be made of Indian natives 
but in behalf of the public, by authority of the General 
Assembly." 

Before the proprietors could reach Boonsborough, the 
head-quarters of their colony, and take possession of their 
lands. Lord Dunmore issued his proclamation against 
them as disorderly persons who should not be allowed 
to hold the country they had purchased, but who should 
be fined and imprisoned if they persisted. As evidence 
of how swiftly news flew over the roadless wilderness in 
those early times, the deed from the Cherokees to Hen- 
derson & Co. was dated at Wataga, the 17th of March, 
1775, and on the 21st of March, 1775, the proclamation 
at Williamsburg, in Virginia, was issued. Lord Dunmore, 
instead of basing his proclamation on the law of Virginia, 
which forbade private citizens buying lands ol the In- 
dians, based it upon the king's purpose to have all these 
lands surveyed in parcels of a hundred or more acres 
and sold at auction. The effect of this proclamation, 
however, whether rightly or wrongly conceived, was to 
array Virginia against the Transylvania Colony, and that 
was to seal its fate. 



40 The Kentucky Centenary. 

The proprietors notified the settlers at such points 
as were known to elect delegates to a convention to be 
held at Boonsborough, and on the 23d of May, 1775, 
these delegates assembled. They were : Daniel Boone, 
Squire Boone, William Coke, Samuel Henderson, Will- 
iam Moore, and Richard Calloway, from Boonsborough ; 
Thomas Slaughter, John Lythe, Valentine Harmond, and 
James Douglas, from Harrodsburg; James Harrod, Nathan 
Hammond, Isaac Hite, and Azariah Davis, from Boiling 
Spring ; John Todd, Alexander Spotswood Dandridge, 
John Floyd,* and Samuel Wood, from St. Asaph's. They 

* It is amusing to read in the Journal of Richard Henderson the 
suspicion wliich he at first entertained of John Floyd. Floyd was a 
deputy of Colonel Preston, surveyor of Fincastle county, and Hender- 
son suspected that he was a spy upon the 'I'ransylvania Colony. But 
he soon found out by intercourse with Floyd how he had mistaken 
his man. Floyd was one of nature's nobles, who was above suspicion. 
Whatever he seemed to be. he was witliout di.sguise. Floyd afterward 
became the surveyor-in-chief of the Transylvania Colony, and was 
looked upon by Henderson as the great and candid man he was. 
In 1783, while going from Spring .Station to Floyd's Station, on Bear- 
grass, Floyd was shot by an Indian in ambush. He was able to get 
home by the helii of his brother, who held him on his horse, but 
he died soon after reaching his fort. Had his life been spared, he 
would have left his impression on the infant State of Kentucky. He 
was remarkably well educated for his times, and had an intellect far 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 41 

organized a regular Legislative Council, and elected 
Thomas Slaughter chairman and Matthew Jouett clerk. 
They then received an address from Richard Henderson, 
president of the company, and voted an answer with all 
the decorous formality of the English Parliament. They 
went promptly to work as a legislative body, and passed 
nine laws, establishing courts, regulating the militia, pun- 
ishing crimes, preventing swearing and Sabbath breaking, 
providing for attachments, protecting the range, and im- 
proving the breed of horses. They were in session until 
the 27th of May, when they adjourned, to meet again 
the first Thursday in September following. 

But they never met again. The times were not 
propitious for a proprietary government in this region. 
The settlers did not like the aristocratic appearance of 
the Transylvania Colony. Some of them who had been 
in sympathy with the proprietors in the first stages of 
the colony now turned against them, and joined others 
in a petition to the Virginia legislature to make a new 
county, and appoint officers for local government, with- 

above the average of those around him. With his brain and energy 
and courage and integrity, there was no position in the country to 
which he might not have aspired and risen. There was no man slain 
by the Indians in early Kentucky whose loss was more felt and whose 
death was more regretted than that of Colonel John Flo)'d. 



42 The Kentucky Centenary. 

out regard to the existence of the colony. In 1776, 
Kentucky county, embracing all the lands of the colony, 
was established, and civil and militar)- officers were ap- 
pointed to govern the county just as if the Transyl- 
vania Colony had not existed. Finally, at the October 
term of the Virginia legislature, in 1778, an act was 
passed giving to Richard Henderson & Co. twelve and 
one-half square miles of the land on both sides of Green 
river, where it enters the Ohio, in full compensation for 
all claims they might have to Kentucky — not as any 
acknowledgment of their right to the country, but as 
compensation for their good offices in extinguishing the 
Indian title, and helping to settle the country. 

How THE Pioneers Lived. 

The first inhabitants of Kentucky, on account ol 
the hostility of the Indians, lived in 'what were called 
forts. These structures had little in common with those 
massive piles of stone and earth from which thunder 
missiles of destruction in modern times. They were 
simply rows of the conventional log cabins of the day, 
built on four sides of a square or parallelogram, which 
remained as a court or open space between them. This 
open space served as a play-ground, a muster field, a 



IVednesday, yuiie i, i8c}2. 43 

corral for domestic animals, and a storehouse for imple- 
ments. The cabins which formed the fort's walls were 
dwelling-houses for the people, and contained the rudest 
conveniences of life. The bedstead consisted of forks 
driven in the dirt floor, through the prongs of which 
poles extended to cracks in the wall, and over which 
buffalo skins were spread for a mattress and bear skins 
for a covering. The dining-table was a broad puncheon 
hewn smooth with an adze, and set on four legs made of 
sticks inserted in auger holes at the corners. The chairs 
were three-legged stools made in the same way, and 
the table furniture consisted of wooden plates, trays, 
noggins, bowls, and trenchers, usually turned out of 
buckeye. A few tin cups and pewter plates and delf 
cups and saucers, and two- pronged iron forks and pew- 
ter spoons, were luxuries brought from the old country, 
and only found upon the tables of the few who could 
afford them. The fire-place occupied nearly one whole 
side of the house ; the window was a hole covered 
with paper saturated with bear's grease, and the door 
an opening, over which hung a buffalo skin. Near the 
door hung the long-barreled flint-lock rifle on the prongs 
of a buck's horns pinned to the wall, and from which 
place it was never absent except when in use. 

In these confined cabins whole families occupied a 



44 The Keniticky Centenary. 

single room. Here the women hackled the wild nettle, 
carded the buffalo wool, spun the thread, wove the cloth, 
and made the clothes. The men wore buckskin hunt- 
ing shirts, trousers, and moccasins, and the women lin- 
sey gowns in winter and linen in summer. If there 
was a broadcloth coat or a calico dress, it came from 
the old settlements, and was only worn on rare occa- 
sions. 

Such a life had its pains, but it also had its pleas- 
ures. Of evenings and rainy days, the fiddle was heard, 
and the merry old Virginia reel danced by both young 
and old. A marriage, that sometimes united a boy of 
sixteen to a girl of fourteen, was an occasion of great 
merriment, and brought out the whole fort. When an 
itinerant preacher came along, and favored them with a 
sermon two or three hours in length, it was also a great 
occasion. A young man had some difficulty in making 
his sweatheart understand all he had to say in a small 
room filled by her parents and brothers and sisters, but 
on essential points it was easy to remove the discussion 
to the open space. The shooting match, the foot-race, 
wrestling, jumping, boxing, and, it may be added, fighting, 
afforded amusement in the open space, and blindfold and 
hide-and-seek and quiltings, knittings, and candy pullings 
made the little cabins merry on many occasions. The 



Wednesday, jfujie i, i8g2. 45 

corn field and the vegetable garden were cultivated within 
range of the rifles of the fort, and sentinels were on 
guard while the work was being done. 



How THE Indians Retarded the Settlements. 

The great obstacles to the rapid population of the 
country were the Indians.* They lurked in the woods 
and confined the settlers to the forts. They did not 
occupy the soil, but lived to the north and the south 
and the west and kept Kentucky for a hunting ground. 
They crossed the Ohio in small parties, and, like thieves 

* It is difficult to fix a time when the Indians were not hostile 
to the whites in Kentucky. Gist, in his journal of 1751, states that 
he did not go to the falls of the Ohio for fear of the Indians. Boone 
lost his companion, John Stewart, while exploring Kentucky in 1769, 
and again in 1773, while leading a number of emigrants to Kentucky, 
he lost a son and five of his company. Hancock Taylor, the surveyor, 
was killed by them in 1774, and as Boone and his party approached 
the site of Boonsborough in 1775, they were attacked by the Indians 
and several of them killed and wounded. It may be stated, therefore, 
that from the beginning of explorations and settlements in Kentucky, 
the Indians were hostile. These hostile Indians, moreover, did not 
live in Kentucky, but dwelt north of the Ohio and south of the 
Cumberland rivers. Kentucky was their hunting ground and had been 
time out of mind, and they showed a determination from the first 



46 The Kentucky Ce^ttenary. 

in the night, crept stealthily upon their victims and shot 
them down or tomahawked them unawares. More people 
were killed in this desultory way than in regular battles. 
In 1790, Judge Innes wTote to the secretary of war that 
during the seven years he had lived in Kentucky the 
Indians had killed one thousand five hundred souls, stolen 
twenty thousand honses, and carried off property to the 
value of fifteen thousand pounds sterling. If to this 
fearful number we add all the deaths previous to 1783 
and subseqent to 1790, the time covered by Judge 
Innes's estimate, in battle and by murder, we shall have 
a terrible summary. Not less than three thousand six 
hundred men, women, and children fell at the hands of 
the savages in Kentucky before the final victory over 
them by General Wayne in 1 794. It may be doubted 
whether the Indians would not have been less formidable 
if they had lived in Kentucky. They would then have 

invasion of it by the whites to defend it. They could not understand 
by what right the whites could come among them and drive them from 
their hunting grounds and occupy them, and they resolved, like brave 
defenders of their country, to give up their possessions only with their 
lives. This contest between the whites and the Indians for Kentucky 
lasted for twenty years, but at last civilization and Christianity suc- 
ceeded in driving barbarism and idolatry from the land. Whether 
they were right in doing so is another question. 



Wednesday, June /, i8g2. 47 

been exterminated b\ the pioneers, instead of being 
crippled in their raids and left to recover and return. 



Pioneer Women. 

Among all the sufferers at the hands of the Indians, 
none bore heavier sorrows and received less credit tor 
them than the pioneer women. Boone and Kenton and 
other heroes, as they deserved, figured largely in history 
and biography. But who has heard of the many brave 
women who have resisted or succumbed to the tomahawk 
and the scalping-knife of the savages ? While their hus- 
bands fired from the loop-holes of the forts upon the 
besieging enemy, their wives molded the bullets with 
which their guns were loaded. They guarded the forts 
while the men were fighting the Indians or hunting the 
game. When death took a pioneer from his toils, it 
was the women who wrapped him in his coarse shroud 
and laid him in his rough coffin and wetted his obscure 
grave with their tears. They were the doctors of the 
times, and while their remedies for wounds and diseases 
seem strange to modern science, yet their catnip tea and 
soothing herbs and elder salve were thought to work 
wonderful cures in their day. From their home in the 
old settlements they brought religious feelings, and when 



48 The Kentucky Ce?itefiary. 

the itinerant preacher turned the hour-glass ior the sec- 
ond or third time and still went on with his mighty 
lungs and voice, the women never grew weary ot' him, 
but heard the words of the good man to the end, and 
remembered them. Collectively and individually, they 
showed a courage on trying occasions ot' which men 
might well be proud. 

When the daughters of Boone and Calloway were 
taken in their canoe on the river at Boonsborouoh, thev 
fought the Indians with the paddles until overcome; and 
while proceeding as captives, they strewed their way 
with pieces of their clothing, that their trail might be 
followed by those they knew would speedily pursue for 
their rescue. On being ordered to quit this and threat- 
ened with the tomahawk if they persisted, they defied 
death and kept on marking their course by dropping 
bits of their clothing and bv bending and breaking twigs 
on their route. Fhe Indians, knowing that a live captive 
was far more valuable than a scalp, and thinking them- 
selves too far in advance to be overtaken, permitted the 
eirls to thus mark their course rather than kill them. 
It was this marking oi their track which enabled Boone 
and his party to follow the route so rapidly as to over- 
take the Indians within forty miles oi Boonsborough. 
At Bryant's Station, when it was Unmd necessary to risk 



Wednesday, yune i , i8c^2. 49 

life for water, the women in a band, led by Mrs. Jemima 
Suggett Johnson, wife of Colonel Robt. Johnson, marched 
to the spring and filled their pails with water, under the 
muzzles of six hundred concealed Indian rifles. They 
successfully brought their vessels filled with water into 
the fort, and thus enabled the garrison to stand a siege 
and resist an overwhelming army of savages. When the 
cabins of Jesse and Hosea Cooke, near Frankfort, were 
taken by the Indians and both the Cookes killed, their 
brave widows showed a courage which has few parallels 
in the whole course of human action. The Indians, 
having failed to force the strong door which shut them 
out from the two women and their children, made at- 
tempts to burn the house. They ascended to the roof 
and repeatedly applied the torch, which was extinguished 
by the women, first with water, while it lasted, then 
with broken eggs, and finally with the blood-saturated 
clothing of their dead husbands lying on the floor. Not 
less brave were Mrs. Michael Woods and her daughter 
Mary in defending their cabin, near Stanford. The In- 
dians had rushed upon the house and not given them 
time to bar the door before one of the savages got 
inside. The brave mother, however, was too quick in 
closing and barring the door for another to enter, and 
while she guarded the door and fought the outside 



50 The Kentttcky Centenary. 

Indians, her daughter, with an ax, cut off the head of 
the Indian who had entered the house. 



How THE Separation of Kentucky from Virginia 
Was Begun and Accomplished. 

But in spite of the opposition of the Indians, the 
settlements of Kentucky grew stronger and stronger from 
time to time, until at the end of the first decade, in 
1784, there were people enough to apply to Virginia for 
an independent government. They took this course, not 
because of any dislike to Virginia, but on account of 
the inconveniences arising from their distance from the 
seat of government, and the intolerable condition in 
which the peace of 1783 had placed them. The At- 
lantic states were benefited by this peace, but not so 
with Kentucky. The Indians would not understand how 
Great Britain could make peace with the colonies with- 
out consulting them and without abandoning their forts, 
and went right on with their hostilities against Kentucky. 
Disposed as the Indians were to be at war, the terms 
of peace practically bound the Kentuckians to stand still 
and be tomahawked and scalped at the will of the 
savages. 

John Filson, in his history of Kentucky, published 



Wednesday, yttne i, i8g2. 5 i 

in 1 784, estimated tlie population of Kentucky at thirty 
thousand, and the map which accompanied his history 
showed this population to be living in fifty-two stations 
and eigtheen houses outside. This was not a large 
population nor one well located for a new state, but it 
was a progressive people, animated by some of the best 
blood that ever flowed through pioneer veins. There 
probably never was a pioneer state that began its career 
with more brains and energy and culture and courage 
than was to be found in Kentucky. These brave and 
isolated settlers had reached their present stage without 
outside help, and they were now resolved to free them- 
selves from a connection with Virginia which gave them 
no adequate protection. 

In the fall of 1784, Benjamin Logan, one of the 
greatest men of his times, invited some leading citizens 
to meet him at Danville to consult about the best means 
of an expedition against the southern Indians, to prevent 
them from making an incursion into Kentucky. This 
consultation disclosed the fact that there was no authority 
in Kentucky for such an expedition, and, in fact, none 
for any offensive measures against the Indians. With 
their eyes thus opened to their helpless condition, they 
resolved to lay the matter before a convention to con- 
sist of one member elected from each military district, 



52 The Kentucky Centenary. 

to meet in Danville on the 27th of December, 1784. 
And thus beg-an that lon^ and tedious series of con- 
ventions for the separation of Kentucky from Virginia 
and erecting it into an independent state, which tried 
the patience and the patriotism of all concerned during 
a period of eight exasperating years. 



The Different Conventions for Independence. 

The first of these conventions* met at Danville on 
December 27, 1784, and, after settling the great principle 
of equal suffrage and representation according to popu- 
lation, recommended another convention to meet on May 

* An account of the proceedings of this first convention was 
published in the third volume of a work entitled " Lettres D'un Cul- 
tivateur American, by St. John de Creve Coeur, Paris, 1787." The 
author was a Frenchman who came from New York to Kentucky in 
1784, and from Louisville sent to Europe a letter containing the 
resolutions passed by this convention. As I have never seen these 
proceedings in any other publication, I here give a literal translation 
from the work just named : 

1. Resolved, That the remote distance of this district from the 
government of Virginia subjects the inhabitants to a multitude of civil 
and political inconveniences that are every day increasing. 

2. Resolved, That it be recommended to the inhabitants of this 
district to seriously consider if it would not be advantageous to ask 



Wednesday, jfinie i, i8g2. 53 

3, 1785, to consider the question of separating from 
Virginia and forming an independent government. 

Tliis second convention promptly resolved on inde- 
pendence, but instead of stopping there and waiting for 
Virginia to sanction the separation, they called another 
convention for August 14, 1785, to ratify what they had 

of our national government that this district be created into a new 
state confederated with the other states. 

3. Resolved, That it be recommended that the good inhabitants 
of this district choose a certain number among them to form a com- 
mittee, which shall continue its sessions during the time of three 
months, whose object it shall be to inquire if the proposed separation 
be really necessary, useful, and indispensable, and to discuss the va- 
rious measures and objects which shall be proposed and submitted to 
their judgment for the interest and advantage of the district. 

4. Resolved, That all the counties in this district have an equal 
right to representation in the choice of their members of the con- 
vention, according to the number of inhabitants who are freeholders 
of the different counties. 

5. Resolved, That this convention shall be composed of twenty- 
eight members, chosen in the following proportion, to wit : twelve for 
the county of Lincoln, eight for that of Fayette, and eight for that 
of Jefferson. They shall be chosen in the month of April next, and 
those of the most suitable persons in each of the said counties shall 
be the inspectors of the elections. 

6. Resolved, That this convention shall be held at Danville, in 
the county of Jefferson, on the first Monday of May next. In view 



54 The KentiLcky Centenary. 

done. It is possible that this cautious delay for the 
ratification of their work was what kept Kentucky so 
long out of the Union. If the convention of INIay, 1785, 
had asked Virginia to approve of separation and peti- 
tioned Congress to accept the new state, it is probable 
that the good work would have progressed too far to 
have been delayed by the campaign against the Indians 
the following year, with which exasperating delay and 
disappointments began. The convention of May, 1785, 
had full authority to proceed with the details of inde- 
pendence, and it is a great pity that it did not go 
right along with the work instead of calling a ratifying 
convention for the following August. 

This third convention of August 14, 1785, resolved 
that a separation was proper, and after voting an address 
to the people and petitions to Virginia and to Congress 
called another convention to meet on the fourth Monday 

of the fact that many matters of the greatest importance will proba- 
bly be submitted to the discussion and judgment of this convention: 
Resolved, That it be expressly and particularly enjoined upon the 
good people of the district of Kentucky to select for members repre- 
senting their counties men of the highest character and possessing the 
most varied ability and extensive knowledge. 

WILLIAM FLEMING, 

President. 



Wednesdouy, yune /, i8g2. 55 

in September, 1 786, to complete the work of separation 
and form a constitution. But when the fourth convention 
met, in September, 1786, the trouble began. So many 
of the members were with Clark and Logan in expe- 
ditions against the Indians that a quorum could not be 
obtained. The few members present met and adjourned 
from day to day until a quorum was present. But 
just at this time, the Virginia legislature's action in 
repealing the act giving consent to the separation was 
made known and the powers of the convention brought 
to an end. Nothing was now to be done but to begin 
anew, and this was done by calling another convention 
for September 17, 1787. 

This fifth convention met and went over the beaten 
track ot resolving on separation, addressing the people 
and petitioning Virginia and Congress, and called another 
convention for July 28, 1788, to complete its work. 

This sixth convention met, and while it was in 
session news came from Congress that the petition of 
the new state had been rejected, and Kentucky was 
advised by that august body to so shape her course as 
to get into the Union under the constitution of the 
United States, which had then been adopted. This was 
a sad disappointment, but there was no help for it. 



56 The Kenhicky Centenary. 

The work of separation had to begin again, and another 
convention was called for November 3, 178S. 

This seventh convention met and resolved again on 
separation, and voted petitions to Congress and Virginia, 
and called another convention for July 20, 1789, to com- 
plete its work. 

This eighth convention, it was thought, would cer- 
tainly get the new state into the Union, but another 
disappointment was at hand. Virginia, in repeating her 
act consenting to separation, had changed the terms and 
so infringed upon the sovereignty ot the new state by 
retaining control over some of its public lands, that 
Kentucky rejected the terms, and petitioned for the 
original act to which she had agreed lor a separation. 
Virginia consented, but it put Kentucky back to the 
beginning again in her movement for independence, and 
another convention was called for July 26, 1790. 

This ninth convention met July 26, 1790, and began 
at the beginning, as if no previous steps had been 
taken to separate Kentucky from Virginia. After deter- 
mining that it was expedient to separate, according to 
Virginia's fourth act of consent, December 18, 1789, and 
voting a petition to Congress for admission into the 
Union, a resolution was adopted fixing June i, 1792, as 
the day on which Kentucky, as an independent state, 



IVednesday, yitne i, i8g2. S7 

should begin. They then called another convention for 
April 2, 1792, to make a constitution for the new state. 



The First Constitution of Kentucky. 

Finally, and to the grateful relief of long vexed and 
sorely tried humanity, the tenth and last convention met 
at Danville, April 2, 1792, and in accordance with the 
resolutions of the previous convention and the act of 
Virginia of December 18, 1789, authorizing the separation, 
and the act of Congress of February 4, 1791, admitting 
Kentucky into the Union, to take effect June i, 1792, 
proceeded to make a constitution for the new state. 
Samuel McDowell, who had been the president of all the 
preceding conventions, except two, was made the presi- 
dent, and Thomas Todd, who had been the clerk of all 
the others, was made the clerk of this. Five members 
appeared from each of the nine counties then in the 
state, making the whole number of delegates forty-five.* 

* I know of no correct list of the members of this convention 
that has ever been published. I have the original journal of the 
convention, kept by Thomas Todd, the clerk, but it contains no list 
of the names of the members. This journal does, however, contain 
a yea and nay vote, which supplies the best known list of the mem- 
bers. This vote was recorded on Wednesday, April 18, 1792, on 



58 The Kentucky Centenary. 

The members were among the most distinguished citizens 
of the state at that time, and among them were George 
Nicholas, Alexander Scott Bullitt, Benjamin Sebastian, 

the question of striking from the constitution the ninth article, which 
was the pro-slavery clause. Those who voted for striking out the pro- 
slavery clause were : 

Andrew Hynes, 

Samuel Taylor, 
Jacob Froman, 
Harry Innes, 
John Bailey, 
Benedict Swope, 
Charles Kavenaugh, 
George Smith, 
Robert Frier, 
James Crawford, 
James Garrard, 
James Smith, 
John McKinney, 
George Lewis, 
Miles W. Conway, 
John Wilson. — 16. 

Those who voted against striking out the pro-slavery clause were : 
Samuel McDowell, 
Benjamin Sebastian, 
John Campbell, 
William King, 
Matthew Walton, 



Wednesday, yunc i, 18^2. 59 

James Garrard, Matthew Walton, Samuel McDowell, 
Benjamin Logan, Isaac Shelby, Caleb Wallace, Richard 
Taylor, John Campbell, and Harry Innes. The most 

Joseph Hobbs, 

Cuthbert Harrison, 

George Nicholas, 

Benjamin Logan, 

Isaac Shelby, 

William Montgomery, v- 

Thomas Kennedy, 

Joseph Kennedy, 

Thomas Clay, 

Higgason Grubbs, 

Hubbard Taylor, 

Thomas Lewis, 

John Watkins, 

Richard Young, 

William Steele, 

Caleb Wallace, 

Robert Johnson, 

John Edwards, 

Benjamin Harrison, 

Robert Rankin, 

Thomas Warring. — 26. 

The other three members were : Alex. Scott Bullitt, Robert Breck- 
inridge, and Richard Taylor, all from Jefferson county, whose votes, 
for some unknown reason, were not recorded in the journal. 



6o The Kentitcky Centeitary. 

gifted among them was George Nicholas, the learned 
lawyer and the profound statesman. To him, more than 
to any other member, belongs the honor of the first 
organic law of the state. He drafted the twenty-two 
resolutions which were first adopted by the convention, 
and which determined the character of the constitution. 
He afterward drafted the constitution itself, and was 
practically the author of its twelve articles and its 
schedule. 

There were six ministers of the gospel in this 
convention, and when the vote was taken upon the 
pro-slavery clause every one of them voted against it. 
They were Revs. John Bailey, Benedict Swope, Charles 
Kavenaugh, George Smith, James Crawford, and James 
Garrard. Another minister, David Rice, had been elected 
to the convention, but resigned before any of the prin- 
ciples of the constitution came to a vote. He was, 
however, succeeded by Harry Innes, who voted against 
the pro-slavery clause, just as Minister Rice would have 
voted if he had been there. 

The constitution made by these men has long since 
ceased to be binding. It nevertheless has a historic 
interest, because it was the fundamental law with which 
our commonwealth began its life. Its author, George 
Nicholas, from his associations with the makers ol the 



Wednesday, June i, i8g2. 6i 

constitution of the United States, gave it a decidedly 
Federal cast. Our governor and our senators were 
trammeled with the cumbrous machinery of electors, and 
it gave to the Court of Appeals original jurisdiction in 
land suits; but with all its faults, our constitution of 1792 
was a vast improvement upon many of its written and 
unwritten contemporaries. It placed all religions upon 
an equal footing. It forbade commerce in slaves, and 
provided for their emancipation by the legislature. It 
secured the freedom of the press. It gave to all free 
men the right to vote without property qualifications. 
It miticrated the horrors of imprisonment for debt. It 
made all citizens equal before the law. It lodged in the 
people all primal and ultimate sovereignty, and opened 
the great highway for human progress to all men alike. 

Conspiracies in Kentucky. 

During the sessions of the conventions, and after 
their work was done, there were Spanish, French, and 
British intrigues in Kentucky, but the principal ones were 
Spanish. At the peace of 1783, Spain, with her hereditary 
proclivity for intriguing and intermeddling, attempted to 
confine the victorious colonies to the territory lying 
between the Appalachian mountains and the Atlantic 



62 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Ocean. France supported Spain in this intended out- 
rage, but England was too wise to favor the scheme. 
She preferred that the Mississippi valley, so far as it was 
in dispute, should go to her former colonies, naughty as 
they had been in rebelling against her, and hence our 
western boundary was fixed in the Mississippi river. 
Spain having failed to have her wishes in the treaty ot 
1783, never abandoned the hope of gaining something by 
intrigue. Her emissaries worked upon Kentuckians when 
they went to New Orleans with their produce, and they 
came among them at home, first with their sinister designs 
covered with the gossamer of commercial relations, but 
at length presented with all the naked deformity ol 
treason. They found a few adherents in such men as 
Wilkinson and Sebastian, who, for the pay they offered, 
entertained them, but there were no considerable number 
of Kentuckians who ever thought of any relations with 
Spain, beyond what would secure for them the free 
navigation of the Mississippi river. Spain held the ter- 
ritory on both sides of the Mississippi river, and with its 
occlusion the products of the rich lands of the Kentuckians 
were without a market. Tobacco and grain could not 
be transported over the mountains to the east, and Ken- 
tuckians, without the Mississippi as an outlet to the 
markets of the world, had no connection whatever with 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 63 

those markets. Help from their own crovernment to 
procure this freedom of the great river seemed ahnost 
hopeless. The revolutionary war had not won it with 
its victory ; the treaty of 1 783 had not secured it ; Con- 
gress had spent weary years of negotiation without 
obtaining it, and at last it was understood that it was 
to be bartered away by Congress for commercial privi- 
leges that might help the eastern part of the country, 
but would leave Kentucky without advantages. Under 
such trying disappointments, with the Indians scalping 
them for want of adequate protection from Virginia or 
the United States, and the only way they had to the 
markets ot the world occluded, it would not have been 
strange if the people of Kentucky had entered into any 
compact with Spain that would have shielded them from 
the savages and opened the way for their commerce to 
the sea ; even if it required separation from Virginia and 
the old confederation of states, and the establishing of 
an independent government. Before the final separation 
of Kentucky from Virginia many of her good citizens 
cherished the hope that some arrangement with Spain 
might be made by which the freedom of the Mississippi 
would be secured, but not after Kentucky became a 
member of the Federal Union. Thomas Power, as the 
agent of Spain, was here in 1795, with treasonable 



64 The KenHicky Centenary. 

propositions disguised as commercial, and he was here 
again in 1797, with the disguise thrown off and the 
naked treason displayed in a proposition to furnish arms 
and money to help Kentucky to separate from the Union 
and establish an independent governnient. His proposals 
were rejected by the very men to whom they were made, 
and George Nicholas had the honor of drafting the 
rejection. 

It is easy enough for us, at the distance of a cen- 
tury, when the United States have grown to colossal 
dimensions, to see how unwise and rebellious and trea- 
sonable it would have been for Kentucky to have at- 
tempted an independent government in the Mississippi 
valley. Kentuckians, however, did not then see these 
mighty United States as we now see them. When 
Kentucky was in her greatest troubles, the United States 
were bound together by a rope of sand, that might part 
at any moment, and there was no particular honor in 
being one of them. England maintained military posts 
on their sovereign soil for thirteen years after the peace 
of 1783, and they had very little of the respect of the 
nations of the earth. Rebellion had been the order of 
the day for some years, and if Kentucky had seen fit 
to separate from uncongenial and unprofitable companions 
and set up for herself, there might have been much folly 



Wednesday, y-iine i, tSc}2. 65 

in her act, and a sufficient quantity of rebellion, which 
was then fashionable, but not much treason. Self-pro- 
tection is a stronger tie than allegiance. It is a higher 
law than treason. 

To denounce all the eminent Kentuckians who took, 
part in these Spanish proceedings as traitors or con- 
spirators, is to judge the darkness of their days by the 
light of ours. They had obstacles to contend with which 
no longer exist, and we can only judge them rightly by 
judging them in the midst of their surroundings. They 
avoided the insidious wiles of Miro and Carondelet and 
Gardoqui on the part of Spain. They tarnished not their 
neutral escutcheon by following Genet to the French 
conquest of Spanish Louisiana. They listened not to the 
insidious words of England as they fell from the schem- 
ing lips of Dr. Connolly when he offered men and arms 
to be used against the Spaniards. They stood out 
against all temptations through eight dragging years and 
eight disappointed attempts by lawful conventions to 
separate from Virginia, while their only outlet to the 
markets of the world was barred to them by arch- 
conspirators ; and when they had obtained the freedom 
of the Mississippi, they showed unmistakably that they 
had what they wanted, and that they had no further 
use for the Spaniard, the Frenchman, or the English- 



66 The Keiitttcky Centenary. 

man. We must judge them lor what they did, and not 
for what we are pleased to conjecture that they wanted 
to do, and would have done if they could. Some ol our 
illustrious pioneers have been denounced as traitors, dil- 
fering only in the degree of their treason, but whosoever 
reads aright their relations to their surroundings, and 
justly estimates the uncounted good deeds they did tor 
their country will be apt to conclude that if there was 
treason in any of them, except Wilkinson and Sebastian, 
whose avarice e.xceeded their patriotism, it was of a kind 
to be remembered with gratitude rather than to be 
denounced with virulence. Such traitors would be a 
blessing rather than a curse to any country in which 
their lot mi^ht be cast. 



& 



New Government Begins. 

In accordance with the provisions of the constitution, 
an election was held on the first Tuesday in May, 1792, 
at which forty representatives and forty electors were 
chosen.* These electors assembled on the third Tuesday 

* The forty representatives elected on the first Tuesday in May 
were the following : 

Richard Taylor, 

Robert Breckinridge, \ Jefferson county. 

Benjamin Roberts, 



Wednesday, jfunc i , i8(p2. 



67 



in May, and elected Isaac Shelby governor and chose 
eleven senators.* By another provision of the constitu- 
tion, the legislature assembled at Lexington on Monday, 
June 4, 1792. They met in a two-story log-house, 



William Montgomery, 
Henry Pawling, 
James Davis, 
Jesse Cravens, 
William Russell, 
John Hawkins, 
Thomas Lewis, 
Hubbard Taylor, 
James Trotter, 
Joseph Crockett, 
James McMillan,^--^' 
John McDowell, 
Robert Patterson, 
George Bedinger, 
John Waller, 
Charles Smith. 
John McKinney. 
James Smith, 
Higgason Grubbs, 
Thomas Clay, 
John Miller, 



1 



- Lincoln county. 



- Fayette county. 



Bourbon county. 



\- Madison county. 



* See note on page 71. 



68 



The Kentucky Centenafy. 



which stood on Main street, midway between Milk and 
Broadway. In the senate, Alexander Scott Bullitt was 
made speaker; Buckner Thruston, clerk; Kenneth McCoy, 



Mason county. 



Mercer county. 



Alexander D. Orr, 
John Wilson, 
Samuel Taylor, 
John Jouett, 
Jacob Froman, 
Robert Mosby, 
William King, 
William Abell, 
Matthew Walton, 
Edmund Thomas, 
Joseph Hobbs, 
Joshua Hobbs, 
John Watkins, 
Richard Young, 
William Steele, 
John Grant, 

And the forty electors chosen at the same time were the following: 
Alexander Scott Bullitt, 



Nelson county. 



Woodford county. 



Richard C. Anderson, 
John Campbell, 
John Logan, 
Benjamin Logan, 
Isaac Shelby, 
Thomas Todd, 



Jefferson county. 



Lincoln county. 



lVed7tesciiay, yiinc i, iSij2. 69 

sergeant-at-arms ; David Johnson, door-keeper; and John 
Gano, chaplain, [ohn Bradford was made pubhc printer; 
Jolin Loi;an, treasurer; George Nicholas, attorney-general, 
and James Brown, secretary of state. 



William Campbell, 
Edward Payne, 
John Martin, 
Abraham Bowman, 
Robert Todd, 
John Bradford, 
John Morrison, 
Gabriel Madison, 
Payton Short, 
John Edwards, 
Benjamin Harrison, 
Thomas Jones, 
Andrew Hood, 
John Allen, 
William Irvine, 
Higgason Grubbs, 
Thomas Clay, 
Robert Rankin, 
George Stockton, 
Christopher Greenup. 
Harry Innes, 
Samuel McDowell, 
William Kennedy. 



Fayette county. 



. Bourbon county. 



Madison county. 
Mason county. 

- Mercer county. 



70 



The Kcnincky Lciitenary. 



Our new government, thus made up, consisted of 
some of the best of the good men in the state. Isaac 
Shelby, the governor, had more renown as a soldier 
than a statesman, but there was need of military talent 
in his position. The fame he had won at Point Pleasant 
and King's Mountain would stand him well in hand with 
the Indians, who were yet hostile in the land. Alexander 
Scott Bullitt, the speaker of the senate, was a man of 
intellect, of culture, and of legal learning, who would fill 
well the office of lieutenant-governor, to which his position 
as speaker of the senate elevated him. James Brown, 
the secretary of state, was a man ot learning and legal 
ability, who afterward became a senator of the United 
States and a minister to France. John Bradlord, the 
public printer, although not trained to the typographical 



Walter Beall. 
John Caldwell, 
William May, 
Cuthbert Harrison, 
Adam -Shepherd, 
James Shepherd, 
John Watkins, 
George Muter, 
Richard Young, 
Robert Johnson, 



Nelson county. 



Woodford county. 



Wedjiesday, June /, i8g2. 71 

art. soon mastered it, and by his sonnd judgment and 
business habits proved of great advantage to the infant 
state. John Logan, the treasurer, had both that sterling 
integrity and business capacity whicli fitted him to mau- 
gurate the money department of the new state. John 
Gano, the chaplain of both houses, was a Baptist preacher 
of the old school, who had preached from stumps in the 
stations until every man, woman, and child in the state 
knew him and loved him. He was now advanced in 
years, but was in robust health, and still had a stento- 
rian voice that could be heard in much larger halls 
than the one in which he was to officiate as chaplain. 
Robert Breckinridge, the speaker of the house, had long 
been a political leader among the pioneers. 

* The eleven senators chosen by the electors were the following: 
John Campbell. 
Alexander Scott Bullitt, 
John Logan, 
Robert Todd, 
Peyton Short, 
John Caldwell, 
William McDowell, 
Thomas Kennedy, 
John Allen, 
Robert Johnson, 
Alexander D. Orr. 



72 The Kentucky Cente?iary. 

In the letjislature were a number ol the best men 
of the state. Among them was James Smith, who was 
afterward to write one of the most fascinating ol all 
books of Indian captivity and travel ; Robert Patterson, 
one of the founders of Lexington, in Kentucky, and Cin- 
cinnati and Dayton, in Ohio ; Richard Taylor, father ot 
the twelfth president of the United States; John Jouett, 
the daring patriot who, upon his foaming charger, passed 
the lines of Tarleton's cavalry and bore the news of the 
invasion to the legislature of Virginia, then in session, 
in time for the members to make their escape, and 
Alexander D. Orr, afterward a member of Congress, 
occupied seats with others distinguished for those quali- 
ties which made men useful and successful in those 
times. No member rose supremely above the rest tor 
natural or acquired gifts, but, taken as a whole, our 
first legislature was worthy to be remembered for its 
ability, its integrity, and its patriotism. 

On Wednesday, June 6, the lower house assembled 
in the senate chamber to hear the governor's message. 
Governor Shelby appeared in person, and from the 
speaker's desk delivered his address.* It was short, 

* The following is the full te.xt of Governor Shelby's message as 
he read it to the legislature : 

"Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:— 
As the prosperity of our common country will depend greatly on the 



Wednesday, yiuie /, i8g2. 7 







but recommended the establishing of a sound state 
credit and the bringing of land litigation to a close as 
matters worthy of the first consideration. The governor, 
having finished his brief address, retired, and the repre- 
sentatives returned to their chamber. The legislature 



-to 



niimner in which its government is put in motion, it will be particu- 
larly incumbent on you to adopt such measures as will be most likely 
to produce that desirable end. 

"Among the means which ought to be used for that purpose, 
none will be found more efficacious than the establishing public and 
private credit on the most solid basis. The first will be obtained by 
a scrupulous adherence to all public engagements, the last by a speedy 
administration of justice. The happiness and welfare of this country 
depend so much on tlie speedy settlement of our land disputes, that 
I can not forbear expressing my hope that you will adopt every nec- 
essary measure to give full operation to the mode pointed out by the 
constitution for that purpose. It will be eminently necessary that you 
should pass laws regulating the future elections of members to the state 
legislature. The having those elections made without any kind of 
undue influence is an object highly worthy of legislative attention. It 
is also incumbent on you and your duty requires that you should as 
soon as possible appoint two senators to represent this state in the 
national senate ; and pass the necessary laws to prescribe the time 
and measure of electing this state's proportion of members to the 
house of representatives. A law obliging sheriffs and other public of- 
ficers to give security for the due performance of the duties of their 
respective offices will be essentially necessary. Your humanity, as well 



74 The Kenhicky Centenary. 

now went to work, and were in session from the fourth 
of June to the twenty-ninth. During their session they 
passed thirty-seven laws and six resolutions. The first 
act was for the establishment of an auditor's office, and 
the last lor the payment ot their own small allowance 
of |,i.oo per day as law-makers. 

as your duty, will induce you to pass laws to compel the proper 
treatment of slaves agreeable to the direction of the constitution. 

"Gentlemen of the house of representatives, it will be your pe- 
culiar duty to point out the manner in which the public supplies shall 
be raised. Small as our money resources are, I flatter myself you 
will find them fully equal to the necessary expenditures of the gov- 
ernment. I conceive that the honor and interest of the state require 
that, whatever may be the amount of these expenses, the funds for 
their payment should be adequate and certain. The constitution has 
made it )'our duty at the present session to cause to be chosen com- 
missioners for the purpose of fixing the place for the permanent seat 
of government. 

"Gentlemen of the senate and house of representatives, you may 
be assured of my hearty co-operation in all your measures which may 
have a tendency to promote the public good. I'he unorganized state 
of our government and the season of the year render every proper 
dispatch of the business which will come before you so much your 
duty that I shall forbear to add any thing on that head." 



Wednesday, Jtme /, i8cj2. 75 



Condition of Kentucky when She Began State- 
hood. 

The condition of Kentucky when it first became an 
independent state was very different from what we now 
see it. With the exception of the spots of cleared land 
around the villages and forts, and the few houses out- 
side of them, the whole country was covered by the 
original forest, in which lurked Indians and bears and 
wolves and panthers and wildcats. All land travel was 
over dirt roads, full of dust in the summer, and deep in 
mud in the winter. One of these roads led from Cum- 
berland Gap through Crab Orchard, Danville, Bardstown, 
and Bullitt's Lick to Louisville. Another crossed the 
Big Sandy at the forks, and leading through Morgan's 
and Strode's .Stations to Lexington, passed on through 
Frankfort and Drennon's Lick to Louisville. A third 
led from Maysville by the Lower Blue Lick and Paris 
to Lexington ; a fourth from the mouth of the Licking to 
Lexington, and a fifth from Middle Tennessee to Dan- 
ville. These main roads were passed over by all persons 
either coming into the state or going out from it. 
Cross roads connecting with the main roads at various 
points formed the lines of internal and neighborhood 



']^ The Kentucky Centenary. 

communication. Some of them followed lines originally 
marked out by the buffalo, time out of mind before, and 
were broad enough for highways of commerce ; but most 
of them were mere traces and bridal paths, which no one 
but a woodsman or acquaintance could follow. Across 
the streams were no bridges, and people passed them 
at shallow places called fords, or in rude flatboats or 
canoes used for ferries. The travel and trade upon the 
rivers were in canoes and flatboats, and barges and keels 
propelled by oars or sails. Only a few meadows or 
pastures had yet been prepared, but over broad areas 
were natural meadows, while cane brakes and wild clover 
fields and patches of pea vine and swards of blue grass 
of natural growth were every-where to be seen. 

A hundred thousand inhabitants were scattered over 
the nine counties* into which the original Kentucky 
county had been divided, and most of them were still 
dwelling in villages and forts. The Indians were yet in 
the land, and life was not safe outside of fortified places. 

* These nine counties were : Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln, the 
three counties into which Kentucky county had been subdivided in 
1780; Nelson, formed out of Jefferson in 1784; Bourbon, out of 
Fayette in 1785; Mercer and Madison, out of Lincoln in 1785; 
Mason, out of Bourbon in 1788; and \Voodford, out of Fayette in 
1788. 



Wedfiesday, June i, i8g2. "j"] 

Only the year before the savages had rallied in such 
strength as to surprise the army of General St. Clair 
and crush it with such slaughter as had not occurred 
since Braddock's defeat on the Monongahela, or Todd's 
at the Blue Licks. While the new government was 
being inaugurated, a large party of them entered the 
state, and almost in the shadow of the house in which 
the first legislature met, murdered citizens and stole 
property. Even as late as March lo, 1795, a number 
of citizens of Louisville and Jefferson county bound 
themselves by written contract to pay the sum set 
opposite their names for Indian scalps taken within their 
vicinity.* 

On the farms that had been opened near the forts, 
the rudest kind of agriculture prevailed. The farmer 
broke up his ground with the wooden mold-board plow, 
and planted his corn and sowed his wheat with his 
hand. The grain was cut with a reap hook or cradle, 
and beat out with the flail or by the feet of horses 
ridden over the straw with the heads on laid in a circle 
for this purpose. His flour was sifted through a coarse 
linen cloth, and his grain ground in the hand mill or 
beaten in the mortar. A few horse mills and water 

* Original contract signed by the parties in the possession of R. 
T. Durrett. 



j^ The KeiitiLcky Centenary. 

mills were in the country, but they were not generally 
used or accessible. His crop was cultivated with the 
hoe, and his carpenter's work done with the ax, the 
adze, and the auger. His flax was spun on the small 
wheel, his wool on the large wheel, and both woven on 
the hand loom. 

The buffalo and the deer were growing scarce, and 
the farmer was raising domestic animals for food. His 
cattle and sheep, however, were what are known as 
scrubs, and his horses of an inferior breed. His vege- 
table garden consisted of little more than cabbages, 
pumpkins, turnips, beets, and peas. His cows fed upon 
the cane, and gave rich and well flavored milk, which, 
with the butter and curds and cheese which were made 
of it, were about the best food put upon the table. 
Whatever the table afforded, however, was generously 
given to every comer, no matter at what hour he arrived, 
nor whence he came. Abundance of fish came from the 
streams, the woods afforded squirrels and opossums, and 
the fields rabbits and quails. 

The peach was about the only domestic fruit that 
was abundant, the apple tree not yet being old enough 
for full bearing. Wild fruits, however, were abundant. 
The persimmon, the grape, the pawpaw, the mulberry, 
the haw, the May apple, the blackberry, the wild straw- 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 79 

berry, and the wild goose plum were gathered and eaten 
by all, and so were the walnut, the hickory nut, and the 
chestnut. Brandy was distilled from the peach and wine 
fermented trom the grape and beer trom the persimmon, 
but as early as 1783,* whisky had been distilled from 
corn, and that was now in use either as mint julep 
or as grog or toddy. Those who could afford it had 
Maderia wine and Jamaica rum on their table, but the 
state or common drink was whisky. 

The most important niechanics in the country were 
the blacksmiths, the carpenters, and the wiieelwrights. 
They made pretty much every thing that was made with 
such simple tools as the saw, the file, the jack-plane, 

* In 1783, Evan Williams erected a small distillery on the ri\er 
at the foot of Fifth street, in Louisville. Here he distilled whisky 
from corn, and the dwellers among the ponds at the falls thought his 
product a good medicine for chills and fever, though a very bad 
whisky. Williams, as a manufacturer of whisky, claimed the right to 
sell his product without license, but in March, 1788, he was indicted 
by the grand jury for this offense. In 1802, the water and slop from 
his distillery became so offensive to those dwelling near that his estab- 
lishment was declared a nuisance. Williams was a member of the 
early board of trustees of Louisville, and tradition says that he never 
attended a meeting of the board without bringing a bottle of his 
whisky, and that what he brought was always drank by the members 
before the meeting adjourned. 



8o The Kentucky Centeitary. 

the drawing-knife, the ax, the adze, the auger, and the 
hammer. They were not particular about sticking to 
their trades, but each did what of the work of the other 
he could and something of what belonged to neither. 
They managed among them to make guns* and furni- 
ture and implements, that belonged to the trade ol 
neither, and so altogether they met the wants of the 
community. 

There was but one printing establishment, and that 
was in the log cabin of John Bradford, at Lexington, 
whence was issued once a week the Kentucky Gazette, 

* In 1782, Michael Humble, a blacksmith residing at Louisville, 
made a riile for Daniel Boone, which is yet in existence. It is a 
long gun, almost as long as two modern rifles, and when Boone stood 
it up beside him with the butt on the ground, he could blow into the 
muzzle without stooping. The barrel bears evidence of having been 
hammered into its shape and then smoothed with the file. It is not 
likely that Humble made the barrel or the lock, but that, having 
procured these parts, he put them together and made the stock, and 
thus turned out the complete rifle. The old rifle yet shoots well, 
and,' in the hands of an expert, will make as good shots as Boone 
made with it more than a hundred years ago. Boone exchanged this 
rifle with Captain James Patten for one of smaller caliber, because 
he thought its large bore was too great a waste of powder and lead. 
After the death of Patten, William Marshall married his widow, and 
from him the Boone rifle was obtained by the present owner. 



IVednesday, yiine I, tS(j2. 8i 

which was begun August ii, 1787, on a half sheet of 
coarse paper nineteen inches long and ten wide. The 
paper was printed on a hand press, and it required a 
whole day's hard work to run off an edition of five 
hundred. Not a book had yet been printed in the 
state, and not a pamphlet beyond the dignity of Brad- 
ford's Almanac. Only a few books had been brought 
into the state, and they were very unequally distributed. 
Such as they were, the religious character predominated, 
and more copies of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, and 
Milton's Paradise Lost, and Baxter's Saint's Rest, and 
Fox's Book of Martyrs were to be seen than any other 
books. It is necessary to add, however, that some of 
our pioneers had upon their shelves the works of Paine, 
Rousseau, and Voltaire. 

There were schools in log houses in the stations 
and villages, and Transylvania Seminary was open at 
Lexington. But little beyond Dilworth's Spelling-book 
and Horton's Arithmetic was attempted at these schools ; 
but in Transylvania Seminary, and such select schools as 
Craig's at Georgetown, and Priestley's at Bardstown, and 
Fry's in Mercer, and Finley's in Madison county, quite 
a high order of education for a new country, might be 
obtained. 

The Baptists, the Presbyterians, the Catholics, the 



82 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Methodists, and the Episcopalians were the leading relig- 
ious denominations, and of these the Baptists were the 
most numerous. A Baptist Church had left Spottsylvania 
county, Virginia, and come to Kentucky in a body, sing- 
ing and praying and preaching and preserving church 
government through a wilderness of five hundred miles. 
No church edifice had yet arisen beyond the architecture 
of the log cabin. Most of the preaching was done in 
private houses or in the forts, but the rarity of the ser- 
mons made all denominations glad to hear one several 
hours in length, whether they agreed with its doctrines 
or not. 

The medical profession had not reached the high 
grade to which McDowell and Brashear and their suc- 
cessors afterward bore it, but such men as Frederick 
Ridgley were doing noble practice in Lexington and 
other parts of the state. Some of them made vain 
attempts to run out disease with the flow of blood from 
opened veins, and used calomel until it produced a worse 
malady than the one attempted to be removed ; but their 
blood letting and mercury dosing were then the style. 
The doctor carried his drug store in his saddle-bags, and 
compounded and put up his own prescriptions. He rode 
by day and by night, in sunshine and in storm, over a 
wide extent of country, and earned the fees he got. 



Wednesday, yune i, iScj2. "^^^ 

which were often paid in corn and meat and vege- 
tables. 

No pioneer state ever presented a stronger bar than 
Kentucky. The lawyers of 1792 were men most of whom 
had been ruined by the revolutionary war, and who had 
come to Kentucky to provide for themselves and families. 
Some of them, like George Nicholas, Harry Innes, George 
Muter, William Murray, Christopher Greenup, and James 
Hughes, had made fame in their native state, and the 
terribly intricate land titles they had to deal with made 
their legal learning acute, incisive, and profound. He 
who familiarizes himself with the legal questions settled 
in the cases reported in Hughes and Hardin, and Snead 
and Bibb will not fail to conclude that the pioneer bar 
in Kentucky has had but few superiors in any land. 

There were no post-offices and no mail carriers. 
Letters had to be borne from place to place by private 
hands, and John Bradford had to provide carriers for 
his Kentucky Gazette. Almost every one who came 
into the state or went out of it, or went from one 
place to another within it, was the bearer of one or 
more letters. 

Travel had not yet reached the refinement of the 
stage coach. People went from place to place on horse- 
back or afoot ; and it was not unusual for the women 



84 The Kenhicky Centenary. 

of 1792 to ride a dozen or more miles on horseback, 
or to walk lialf as far to pay a social visit. 

In tlie principal towns and stations there were stores 
in each, of which all the articles sold were jumbled 
together. Nails and calico, axes and broadcloth, delf- 
ware and silks, furniture and bonnets, lumber and hats, 
sugar and medicine, whisky and books, were sold over 
the same counter. The women of the country brought 
in their linen and linsey and jeans, and bartered them in 
the stores for tea and coffee and such other articles as 
they could not make at home ; but the stores sold {(t\\ 
things that could be produced at home by the husband 
or the wife. 

Males and females generally dressed in garments 
made of linen, linsey or jeans woven at home. A few 
who could afford it, wore broadcloths, silks, prints, cala- 
mancoes, durants, tammies, shalloons, or ratinels procured 
from the stores, and paid for with tobacco and beef 
and pork and corn. 

But little money was in circulation, and barter was 
the almost universal medium of exchange. The Spanish 
dollar was about the only silver known, and this was cut 
with a hammer and chisel into halves and quarters and 
bits and picayunes for the convenience of change. Some 
old trappers who wanted silver for their beaver skins, 



l/Vednesday, June i, iSij2. 85 

complained that the dollar was sometimes cut into five 
or six quarters. 

A few first-class farmers like Isaac Shelby had 
blooded horses and fine cattle and sheep and hogs on 
their farms, but they were exceptions. The long-snouted 
hog of the woods, the shabby cattle of the mountains, 
the Barbary sheep, and the ponies the Indians loved to 
steal were the kind usually found upon the farms. Game 
roosters for fighting were found in many places where 
all else were scrubs, and sometimes a fine race-horse* 
imported from Virginia was seen among miserable hacks. 

* The pioneers brought with them from the old country a love 
for horse-racing and the horses to do the running. As early as 1783, 
a race-course known as " Haggins's Race Paths" was near Harrods- 
burg, and races run over it. Hugh McGary was tried and found 
guilty and pronounced an infamous gambler by the court for betting 
a mare worth twelve pounds on a race run on this course in May, 
1783. In Louisville, there was a race-track along Jefferson street as 
early as that at Harrodsburg, and races were regularly run over it. 
In 1786, John Harrison brought from Virginia a race-horse which ran 
over this course until he beat all the scrubs matched against him and 
won all the money. Lexington, the seat of the home of the racer, 
did not have a running track until 1789; but lost time in starting 
was afterward made up in the extent to which racing was carried. 
In 1809, a regular jockey club was established here, which has been 
kept up in one form or another ever since. Some of the most famous 
horses in the world have moved over this track at Lexington. 



86 The KentiLcky Centenary. 



What a Century has Accomplished. 

Such was the condition of Kentucky when she began 
her career as an independent state one hundred years 
ago, and three hundred years after the discovery of 
Cokunbus. The beginning of her statehood on the third 
centennial anniversary of the discovery of America is a 
coincidence that it is not likely her sons will ever forget. 
Through all time to come, the two events will move 
along the same pathway of centuries, separated only 
by the difference of time between the discovery of the 
one and the independence of the other. 

Standing as we do at the favored terminus of a 
hundred years of marvelous progress, our glad eyes rest 
upon the evidences of advancement in our own state that 
could not have been anticipated by the wisest. Could 
Clark and Shelby rise from their hallowed graves to-day 
and look upon their country, they would know it not. 
The same blue sky, with its bright sun by day and its 
pale moon by night, is above us. The same broad land, 
with its rich soil and navigable rivers, is beneath us. 
The same healthful climate wraps us around and imparts 
its enlivening summer breezes and its chastening winter 
winds. All else, how changed ! 



Wed^tesday, yune /, i8c)2. 87 

The great forest which cast its dark shadow upon 
the land has passed away, and with it the wild beasts 
and wilder savages that infested it. In its stead, we 
behold immense fields of grain and pastures of grass, 
sporting with the consenting breezes like ocean waves 
toying with the passing winds. Vast areas of denuded 
forest now covered with growing hemp and tobacco re- 
mind us of the trying days when the haughty Spaniard, 
fortified upon the shores of the Mississippi, shut out our 
products from the markets of the world. The roads first 
marked out by the sagacious buffalo, and afterward 
adopted by the pioneer, with their summer's dust and 
their winter's mud, have given place to macadam thor- 
oughfares and to railroads on which the iron horse, 
unconscious of the burden of a thousand steeds behind 
him, bounds over hills, darts through mountains, springs 
across rivers, and speeds along plains with the velocity 
of the eagle's flight. From our matchless rivers have 
disappeared the pirogue, the canoe, the keel, and the 
barge propelled by sluggish oars and sails, and in their 
places we have those leviathans of omnipotent steam 
which glide along with their immeasurable cargoes as if the 
opposing winds and currents were but toys to allure them 
to their play. The broad prairies and the evergreen 
canebrakes, on which the buffalo and the deer grew fat 



88 The Kentucky Centenm^y. 

for the food of man, are seen no more, and in their 
places the meadows of timothy and the pastures of bkie 
grass are the Eden of the Durhams and the Holsteins, 
of the Southdowns and the Cotswolds. Orchards and 
vineyards and gardens and nurseries surround happy 
mansions on the hills and in the valleys and along the 
plains where the wild woods grew. The whole face of 
the country has been changed as if touched by the 
magician's wand, and the wilderness has been made to 
blossom as the rose. 

Two millions of inhabitants are spread over the one 
hundred and twenty counties into which the state has 
been divided, showing- an average increase of nineteen 
thousand souls for every year of the century that closes 
to-day. It is an intelligent, industrious, and progressive 
population, engaged in most of the commendable pursuits 
of civilization. They have opened agricultural and graz- 
ing and mineral lands, and erected manufactories, the 
surplus products of which go to enrich the markets of 
the world. They have built cities in different parts of 
the land, a single one of which has double the popu- 
lation and many times the wealth of the entire state 
when its independence began. 

While reaching this increase of population, they have 
made mistakes in legislation, as all civilized peoples have 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 89 

done in every age and clime. They blundered in finance, 
in 1 8 18, when they created forty independent banks, and 
turned them loose to prey on the community with their 
paper capital of nearly $8,000,000. They were quick to 
discover their error, and at the end of two years 
repealed the charters of these moneyless institutions. 
They have since established two hundred and fifty banks 
worthy to bear the name, which now meet the wants 
of the community with their solid capital of $35,000,000. 
They blundered in 1820, when they began their wild 
acts of relief, whose follies fed upon their own foolish- 
ness until they brought on that conflict between the old 
Court of Appeals and the new, which shook the com- 
monwealth to its center. Experience again brought them 
wisdom, and they repealed the act establishing the new 
court, and left the people to pay the debts they had 
contracted instead of looking to unconstitutional laws to 
avoid them. They blundered in internal improvements 
until they found the state staggering under a load of 
debts, with little of valuable works to show for the 
money they had cost ; and they blundered in the passage 
of ill-digested laws, to be quickly repealed ; but with all 
their follies of legislation, the wisdom of their acts was 
greatly in the ascendent. 

They have three times renewed their first organic 



90 The Kentucky Centenary. 

law, and each time made advances along the line of 
enlightened progress. The constitution of 1 799 did away 
with the federal features of that of 1792, and brought 
the people nearer to the agents who were to administer 
their government. The constitution of 1850 improved 
upon that of 1799 in the interest of the people by 
making almost all offices elective, and by opening wider 
the various avenues of progress. This was the first of 
our organic laws which looked to the education of the 
people, and it began the great work by setting apart 
forever in the cause of popular education, the million of 
dollars obtained from the United States, with its increase 
from other sources. The educational fund was, at that 
time, more than $1,300,000, and recently it has been 
increased by another $600,000 from the United States, 
which, with other accumulations, will swell the school 
fund to $2,300,000 at this date. It was under this 
constitution also that the old and meaningless forms of 
pleading, inherited from rude ages, were abolished, and 
codes of practice established in their stead. The last 
constitution, of 1891, has departed widely from the beaten 
track of its predecessors and made radical changes, the 
wisdom or the folly of which time alone can determine. 
The makers seem to have honestly struggled to meet 
the wants of an advanced and progressive people, and 



Wednesday, yune /, i8g2. 91 

it remains to be seen whetlier the changed and ever 
varying conditions of our citizens have been sufficiently 
provided for in this instrument. 

In the interest of broad humanity, they passed the 
act of 1 798, repealing the bloody code inherited from the 
mother country, which made our people liable to be 
hanged for no less than one hundred and sixty-five 
enumerated crimes. We can hardly realize that as late 
as 1 798 Kentuckians were subject to the death penalty 
of the law for larceny, perjury, forgery, arson, obtaining 
money under false pretenses, etc. They were a little 
slow and stealthy in doing so, but they repealed that 
disgraceful law by which a man was punished at the 
whipping-post, by omitting this degrading penalty from 
the revised statutes of 1870. They have established 
asylums for the insane, and schools for the blind and 
the deaf and dumb, and retreats for the aged and homes 
for the poor. Even their prisons are no longer those 
sickening dungeons which came down from the dark 
ages, but decent houses of confinement where mercy 
guards the victims and humanity allures them to reform. 
Like prudent heirs who have not squandered the estate 
bequeathed by their ancestors, they have not diminished 
the magnificent territory they obtained from Virginia, but 
have enlarged it. In the south-western corner of the 



92 The Kenhtcky Centenary. 

state they acquired from the Chickasaw Indians,* in 1819, 
seven millions of acres, out of which the flourishing coun- 
ties of McCracken, Ballard, Marshall, Carlisle, Calloway, 
Graves, Hickman, and Fulton have been made. With 
a moral courage that never shrank from the candid ex- 
pression of opinions on important subjects, they gave to 
their country the resolutions of 1 798-9 as the embodi- 
ment of the doctrine of state rights. These celebrated 
resolutions have shaped the political faith of leading 
parties ever since, and they seem destined to exert an 
undiminished influence for all time to come. 

The farmer has laid aside the rude and clumsy helps 
to his industry, and now uses implements which almost 
do his work for him. He opens his land and puts in 

* For some cause unknown, these counties have always been 
known as the Jackson Purchase. Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson 
were the commissioners on the part of the United State who signed 
the treaty of October 19, 181 8, by which the Chickasaw Indians 
gave up all their lands for an annuity of $20,000 a year for fifteen 
years and certain other payments and bounties set forth in the treaty. 
There was just as much reason for calling it the Shelby as the Jackson 
Purchase, and indeed more, because the lands purchased were in Ken- 
tucky and Shelby was a Kentuckian. Possibly the friends of Jackson 
set forth this treaty as a merit in his presidential campaign in 1824, 
and thus fixed the name of Jackson upon the purchase to the exclu- 
sion of Shelby's. 



Wedjiesday, jftme /, i8g2. 93 

his crop and cultivates it and gathers and prepares it 
for market by machinery that leaves him little to do 
with his hands. The mechanic who was a maker and 
mender of all kinds of things has become a specialist, 
and now we have an expert for every different occupa- 
tion. The house that was built by the carpenter of 
1792 now requires the services of the cabinetmaker, the 
joiner, the plumber, the plasterer, the glazier, the painter, 
the mason, the turner, the upholsterer, and a dozen 
others, with an architect to direct the little army. Those 
great civilizers of the world, the newspaper and the 
printing press, have advanced step by step in progressive 
improvements until they have almost reached perfection. 
There are newspapers in almost every village in the 
state, numbering something like three hundred in all, 
and turning out at a single issue seven hundred and 
fifty thousand impressions. There are printing presses 
like the great Hoe of the Courier Journal, with almost 
human intelligence, that print and fold twenty-five thou- 
sand eight-page papers in an hour. The first book * 

* This book grew out of a religious controversy in the Presby- 
terian Church at Lexington, Ky. Adam Rankin, the author, was a 
Presbyterian minister, and wanted the Psalms of David sung in his 
church instead of the hymns of Watts. This question split his church — 
some of the members going off with Rankin singing the Psalms of 



94 The Kentucky Centenary. 

printed in the state was issued from the hand-press of 
Maxwell & Gooch, at Lexington, in 1793. It required 
long and weary months of labor to get out a small 
edition of this little volume of ninety-six octavo pages. 
Such a book could now be sent out in a large edition 
from one of our principal publishing houses in a single 
week. All over our broad land, free schools have been 
established, in which the children of all citizens may 
acquire a good business education. If they would then 
extend their studies, there are private schools every- 
where in which the higher branches of learning may be 
pursued ; and if they would yet go farther, there are 
colleges at Danville and Richmond and Lexington and 
Georgetown and Bardstown or St. Mary's, in which a 

David, while others remained chanting the hymns of Watts. He came 
to Kentucky in 1784, and was of such a controversial nature that he 
kept things pretty lively about him. He was a man of talents and 
of learning, but many of his acts were those of a fanatic. He 
dreamed that the time had come for rebuilding Jerusalem, and set 
out on a journey to witness the great work. He died on the way, 
in Philadelphia, in 1827. Besides this first of Kentucky books, he 
was the author of "Dialogues Pleasant and Interesting upon the all- 
important Question in Church Government," Lexington, i8ro. He 
was also the author of "A Plea for Catholic Communion," "Letters 
to a Brother," and several pamphlets, which had their run in his 
day. 



Wednesday, Jtme i, i8g2. 95 

finished education may be obtained. There are medical 
schools and law schools and theological schools and 
schools of art and science and design and mechanics, 
in which almost every branch of human knowledge is 
open to the student. There are public libraries and 
association libraries and special libraries and private li- 
braries, where the best books of all ages and countries 
are stored. Most of the leading religions of the times 
are represented, and with all of them combined in the 
interest of human souls, there is scarcely a nook or 
corner in which prayer and song and preaching may not 
be heard. Many of the church edifices of our cities are 
fine specimens of ecclesiastical architecture, and the ten- 
dency is to make these structures yet more worthy of 
the sacred office to which they are devoted. In every 
part of the state post-offices have been established, and 
in the leading cities letters and packages are delivered 
at the doors of those to whom they are addressed. 
More rapid than mail carriers in the transmission of 
news and knowledge there are telegraph wires through- 
out the state, over which electricity flashes messages 
regardless of time and space ; and there are telephone 
wires over which the human voice, in conversational tones, 
is heard at distances where the thunders would be silent. 
That mysterious energy which thunders in the storm- 



96 The KentiLcky Centenary. 

cloud and gilds the darkness of the night with the glow 
of the midday sun, has been made to move machinery 
with a velocity hitherto unknown, and to dispel the 
shadows of the night. Passenger cars propelled by its 
invisible might glide along the thoroughfares of our cities, 
and provisions are being made to make it the motive 
power of locomotives to draw immense trains of cars 
over the lines of the railroads extending over our vast 
country. We call this subtle agency Electricity, and 
assign to it possibilities for the future as great as its 
mysteries are now and have been in the past. Steam 
engines have been placed in every position in which 
power is required. They ride on our railroads, they float 
on our rivers, they whirl in our factories, they know not 
weariness, nor require rest. By day and by night, in 
sunshine and in cloud, they cease not their mighty 
efforts. They perform the work which the entire popu- 
lation of the state could not do without them, and exist 
among us as two millions of constant unwearying toilers. 
Our people live in houses that differ from those of the 
last century as the palace of the prince differs from the 
hovel of the peasant. In the Croghan house at Locust 
Grove, and the Clark house at Mulberry Hill, both of 
which have come down to us from the last century, we 
have specimens of the best styles of the houses erected 



Wednesday, yune i, rSg2. 97 

by our forefathers when they thought it safe to leave 
the forts and dwell in the open country. The Croghan 
is a square house built of brick, one story high, with 
two rooms on each side of a broad hall, while the Clark 
is a parallelogram, built of hewed logs two stories high, 
with one room above and one below on each side of 
the hall. The style of the buildings that followed these 
pioneer structures was the basement house with steps 
leading to the floor above the ground, and finally this 
was followed by what now prevails in a strange mixture 
of the Gothic castle, the Italian villa, and the Elizabethan 
cottage with the Virginian mansion. A few who prefer 
comfort to display yet build the old manor houses with 
large rooms and broad halls, inclosed by plain but solid 
walls. The gas that lights and heats these houses, the 
furnaces that warm them, the water that flows through 
them, the photographs that hang on the walls, the 
machine-made furniture that adorns the rooms, the mat- 
tresses of hair, the comforts of down, the porcelain, the 
glass, the gilded knives and forks and spoons, the plated 
ware, and, in fact, nearly all the articles of luxury or 
comfort are the work of the century which has just 
closed. It may be added that new kinds of meats, 
drinks, breads, vegetables and fruits are now placed upon 
the table for breakfast, lunch, dinner, tea, and supper at 



98 The Kentucky Centenary. 

hours that would not have been tolerated by the pio- 
neers. We have bored into the deep-seated rocks of 
the earth, and penetrated great reservoirs of natural gas 
held down for untold ages by arches of anticlinal axes, 
and laid long lines of iron pipes to conduct it to our 
homes and our factories. Its smokeless light and its 
dirtless heat are as great improvements upon the coal 
fire and artificial gas light of our times as these were 
upon the wood fire and the tallow candle of our ances- 
tors. We have had no dearth of historians to record 
these advances ot our country and people, there having 
been no fewer than eighteen of them from Filson, in 
1784, to Smith, in 1889; and yet there is room for one 
more to leave unsaid much that has been said, and to 
say much that has been left unsaid, and to say what is 
to be said in a different style. We naturally incline to 
good opinions for John Filson, the first historian of Ken- 
tucky, in honor of whom our club has been named, but 
all prejudice aside, when we take into consideration the 
little history the new state had to be written in 1784, 
and allow for the superior deserts of his map of Ken- 
tucky and life of Boone, we must candidly say that the 
merits of his history have not been surpassed by those 
of any since written. 



Wednesday, yune i , iScj2. 99 



Military Character. 

With a bravery worthy of the chivalrous race from 
which they sprang, Kentuckians fought the Indian at 
home until his war-whoop no longer rang in the forest 
and his scalping-knife no longer gleamed at the cabin 
door. They followed him to Chillicothe and to Pickaway, 
to the Mauniee and to the Tennessee, to his mountain 
fastnesses and to his forest retreats, until, in 1794, at 
the Fallen Timbers, they dealt him that fatal and crush- 
ing blow from which he never sufficiently recovered to 
return to his favorite fighting and hunting grounds. Nor 
was their bravery of that narrow kind which risks life 
for self alone. They fought under Harrison at Tippe- 
canoe and on the Thames, under Jackson at New Or- 
leans, under Houston in Texas, and under Taylor and 
Scott in Me.xico ; and on every field they won a name 
that their descendants are proud to claim as a part of 
their glorious inheritance. And alas ! when cruel fate 
decreed that their own country must suffer the horrors 
of civil war, and that they must meet their brothers 
and friends upon the field of battle, they shrank not 
from the duty to which conscience called. They sent 
to the Union army eighty thousand of their brave sons. 



loo The Keithicky Ce7ttenary. 

and to the Confederate army half as many more, making 
the largest number in proportion to population contrib- 
uted by any state to the civil war. They laid down 
their lives on many a well-lought field under their Con- 
federate leaders, Johnston and Breckinridge and Preston 
and Buckner and Morgan and Duke and Marshall, and 
they fought not less nobly under Union commanders. 

Distinguished Kentuckians. 

All along the line of the century which closes its 
circle to-day, Kentuckians have made enviable names at 
home and abroad. Were we to attempt to enumerate 
them on this occasion, the day would pass and the 
coming night envelop us in its darkness before the list 
could be completed. We rejoice that among the first 
of philanthropists, her gifted son, John Breckinridge, 
drafted the law of 1798 which did away with the death 
penalty for all crimes except murder ; that her learned 
lawyers, Harry Toulmin and James Blair, led the way 
of modern codes when they issued their review of the 
criminal law in 1804; that her ingenious inventors, John 
Fitch and James Rumsey, had mastered the principles 
of the steamboat in 1787; and that Thomas H. Barlow 
invented the Planetarium and made a model of the first 



Wednesday, ytcne i, i8g2. loi 

locomotive in 1826. They point with pride to their 
distinguished surgeons, Walter Brashear/ who, in 1806, 
first amputated the thigh at the hip joint, and Ephraim 
McDowell, who became the father of ovariotomy in 1809. 
Two presidents of the United States and four vice- 
presidents first saw the light in Kentucky homes, and 
another of her favored sons was chief executive of the 
Confederate States. They have been United States cab- 
inet officers and justices and speakers and ministers 
abroad, and have filled the highest ranks in the army 
and navy. They have been the governors, the lieutenant- 
governors, the legislators, and the judges of sister states. 
Such statesmen as Clay and Crittenden, such orators as 
Menifee and Marshall, such journalists as Prentice and 
Penn, such poets as O'Hara and Cosby, such artists as 
Jouett and Hart, have made fame for themselves and 
their state which bore their names to every portion of 
the civilized world. I refrain from allusions to the dis- 
tinguished living, though the effort at suppression is 
hard, knowing as I do that any enumerating of them 
would require more time than can be given on this 
occasion. 



I02 The Kentucky Centenary. 



The Future. 

We may not presume to peer into the dark unknown 
and attempt to foretell what is to come ; but the data 
of the past and the present are suggestive of the future. 
None of us now present can hope to witness another 
Kentucky centenary. All of us will be laid to rest with 
the occupants of our cities of the dead before this day 
can make its return. Even those who shall then be 
here will not, probably, see our population increased by 
such a ratio as accompanied the years ol the century 
just closed. Half a dozen or more millions may then 
be here engaged in the different pursuits of life. They 
will not abandon the municipalities, nor those blue grass 
lands perennially enriched by the decaying limestone on 
which they rest ; but a new center of population and 
industry and wealth will be then found in our mineral 
regions. The coal and iron underlying twelve thousand 
square miles of mountainous country that the pioneers 
deemed of no practical use, will give to these lands a 
value beyond that of the blue grass fields. The coal 
will be lifted from its bed of ages, and sent abroad to 
warm the people "and move the machinery of the world. 
The iron will be mined and welded into bands to unite 



Wed7tesday, yttne i, i8g2. 103 

the nations of the earth. Railroads will rush through 
the mountain valleys, and furnaces and factories will 
glow along their lines. A hardy population of miners 
will build their cottages upon the hillsides and mountain 
slopes, and the rugged country will be changed from a 
wilderness to a region of picturesque beauty. The 
mountaineers thus brought in contact with enlighten- 
ing industries, and in full view of the glories of the 
advancing world around them, may cease those vendettas 
which have disgraced humanity, and become an indus- 
trious, thriving, and progressive people. With half a 
dozen millions of inhabitants farming upon our blue grass 
plains, and mining in our mountains, and grazing stock 
upon our hills, and manulacturing in our cities, and cul- 
tivating the arts and the sciences every-where, Ken- 
tuckians of the century to come may rejoice in the 
blessings of a country as far in advance of ours as the 
one we enjoy is beyond that of the pioneers. 

The frowning mountains and the rugged hills 
Will yield to plastic art; and, to the hum 
Of wheels and the ring of anvils, uncounted 
Joyous tongues will swell Industry's chorus 
Until the earth, the waters, and the air 
Resound with the harmonies of progress. 
Onward, still onward and forever, will 



I 



I04 TJie Kentucky Centenary. 

Be the watchward until millions of feet 
Threading the byways of spreading commerce 
And myriads of hands manipulating 
The useful arts have made the wilderness 
Of the everlasting, rock-ribbed mountains 
To blossom as the rose. 

When that glorious time shall come, we who close 
the first and open the second century of our statehood 
to-day, will not be forgotten by those who may partici- 
pate in the second centenary ; but we may be remem- 
bered as a happy people on an emerald isle in the 
midst of the river of centuries, whose joyous voices 
resounding through the ages and mingling with those 
on the shore of 1 792 and with those on the shore of 
1992 will unite them into one grand harmony o{ kindred 
sounds. 



AT the close of President Durrett's address, the 
orchestra played " My Old Kentucky Home." 
Vice-President Johnston then introduced Major 
Henry Stanton, who had been chosen by the club as 
the poet of the occasion, and in doing so spoke as 
follows : 



Wednesday, yune /, i8g2. 105 



Vice-President Johnston's Remarks. 

"Some one has said of a state or nation: 'Let 
me make its ballads, and I care not who makes its 
laws.' That the inlhience and province of the poet 
should be thus elevated over those of the legislator will 
strike a chord of sympathy and appreciative confirmation 
in the mind of Kentuckians at this trying period, when 
our law-makers are endeavoring' to legislate for the next 
hundred years, can hardly be doubted by the intelligent 
reader of the press of the day. In recognition of this 
sentiment, we propose to supplement the work of the 
historian with the muse ot poesy, and from the con- 
templation of constitutional and statutory law to turn to 
the more pleasing enjoyment of one of those ballads 
which are supposed to inspire a people with elevated 
love of country. The poet who has been selected for 
this honor is a Kentuckian known to you all, and needs 
no introduction at my hands — the poet laureate of Ken- 
tucky, Major Henry T. .Stanton." 



io6 The Kentucky Centenary. 



Kentucky. 
^ 



BY H. T. STANTON. 



IN yester afternoon — to count as one 
A century of circuits 'round the sun 
And call it but a day — just when the maze 
Of dusk was falling over forest ways 
To shroud them from the sight ; 'ere twilight came 
To fleck expanse with glints of worlds aflame, 
And drop the spangles from her corslet band 
Down through the drab that overspread the land, 
E'er Night, that of the nadir newly born. 
Rode o'er the zenith in the van of Morn, 
And drove the old, and cleared the upper way. 
To smooth a passage for the newer Day; 
In that lost eve on which the shadow lies 
And mists that intervene are slow to rise. 
What scenes were here? What lines were on the face 
Of this, the new day's blooming garden place ? 

The world looks back to find what it has lost, 
Through sweeping flood, and fire, and blighting frost, 
To see again the flitted things it knew. 
In far, familiar ways it wandered through; 




HENRY T. STANTON, 



Wednesday, yuiie i, i8g2. lo; 

To live again the mining days of old 

And from its piled debris wash other gold. 

Ah, well may pause the world to wonder why 

Its days are not forgotten when they die ; 

Why from their graves within the long ago 

Some things sometimes must come without to show 

To steadfast eyes that penetrate the dark, 

From o'er the sea may gleam the light-house spark. 

And through the mists that widely spread away 

May glance the silver spears of breaking day; 

But unto eyes that backward, fitful turn. 

No morn shall break, no lamp at midnight burn. 

In that lost eve, within this bound there stood 
One in the pride of pure young maidenhood ; 
One poised, erect and perfect in the grace 
That fits the girl-child for the grander place. 
One conscious of her strain, and proud to know 
How pure the tide that kept her veins aflow ; 
Who looked abroad and in her regal mein 
Betrayed the frontage of the mother queen — 
From out that closing day she sprang to life 
A princess-leader in the fields of strife; 
A leader by her right of royal strain— 
A leader by her higher right of brain. 
First born of proud Virginia, and the first 
To leave the bosom she had fondly nurst, 
She saw her way to gain the world's renown. 
To win a kingdom, and to wear a crown; 



io8 The Keniucky Centenary. 

And breaking through her mother's rugged bound 
She came to build her throne on conquered ground- 
And proud, and pure, and beautiful she stood, 
The young Kentucky in her maidenhood. 

Of what her girl-days knew before the hour 
In whi< h the swollen bud became the flower; 
Of how o'er weed and thorn she proudly rose 
To where the sun unlocked her petal close, 
And through the cunning of his perfect art 
Looked on the dew that sparkled at her heart; 
Before the contrast came with growth around 
That proved her princess of the primal ground, 
Before the native rudeness of the place 
Betrayed the fullness of her maiden grace, 
If it be told in story fairly well, 
Some other tongue, some other time must tell. 

Shut out from civil bound by rivers deep, 

By forests dark, and mountains high and steep. 

By rocks, ravines and rude, forbidding lines 

Of gnarled laurels and of tangled vines, 

The Unknown Land, that on the sunset rim 

Stretched over distance limitless and dim, 

Lay with its spread of plain, and vale, and hill, 

Beyond the eye, mysterious and still. 

To daring hunter and explorer bold 

Unbroken stood the fastness of its hold. 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 109 

^Vhile, south and westward, dimly stretched away, 
With range on range the bristled mountains lay — 
The Blue Ridge, Smoky, Clinch and Cunibcrlnnd 
Toward the sky, precii)iious and grand, 
As if to bar from man's ambitious quests 
The dark beyond, upheld their cloud-hid crests. 
With no brave hand to grasp and put aside 
The thorny hedging of its thickets wide, 
And no sure foot to make its toilsome trail 
From peak to farther peak, and vale to vale; 
For centuries, this now historic bound 
Remained to civil man untrodden ground. 

.\X last, where waters beautiful define 

The fair meanders of her northern line, 

The straying Franc came down and dimly viewed 

The marge of its unbroken solitude; 

Then Howard, Walker, Gist and James McBride, 

With other bold, ambitious souls allied, 

Came in the bound and blazed some minor ways 

That gave their names to life for after days ; 

They touched, in honor of their spreading race, 

Some narrow confines of this silent place ; 

But none there were, in that lost afternoon, 

To break and hold the close, till dauntless Boone — 

Till, from his hiding far beyond the line, 

By highest peak and lowest vale's incline, 

Through courses that the bison and the deer 

Had dimly graven in the darkness here. 



no TJic Ke/ihicky Ceule/iary 

He came from out the midst of civil bands 
To build his home in rich, remoter lands. 



From where the peaceful Yadkin, flowing free, 
Bends through the Carolinas to the sea, 
By such a path as never human feet 
The dangers of the dark had dared to meet, 
To where the Licking and Kentucky slide 
Their southward channels to the hot gulf-tide, 
He came and traced their leaf-embowered lines 
To where the blue Ohio marks our north confines. 
Of how he struggled with his meager band 
From waste to win this fair and fruitful land ; 
Of how, unfriended, and almost alone. 
His might against a multitude was thrown ; 
Of how he met the warring savage face to face. 
And warring with him won, and held the place ; 
Of how, from ambush and from open fight. 
From scalping-knife by day, and torch by night. 
From all the cunning of remorseless hands 
He won and held these green Kentucky lands, 
Let clear historic lines and scriptions fair 
On living trees and rocks the truth declare. 
Let those who from the dust of slow decay 
Would keep in light the doings of his day. 
With careful eyes look through that afternoon 
For fadeless relics of the fearless Boone. 



Wednesday, yiine /, 18(^2. i i i 

Through him, the maid, Kentucky, o'er that wild, 

As proud Virginia's proud and peerless child — 

In nature free, and pure, and diamond-bright, 

As new-born waters breaking on the light — 

By rivers, hills and vale-ways, every-where, 

In lowlands' shade and uplands' sun-light glare, 

With feet unshrinking and with will unbent 

Her stately way to final statehood went ; 

Nor aught of danger, or of savage force 

Could stay her passage, or could bend her course. 

Through him, she saw her clear and open way. 

Beyond the darkness, to the shining day; 

Through him she knew that on foundations great 

Would rise the granite columns of her State; 

And still, through him, o'er mountain, vale and plain, 

The long-enduring glory of her reign. 

Of this, to clear and tuneful silver string, 
The coming bard his hundred songs may sing. 
The coming poet in his verse disclose 
This budding and this blooming of the rose ; 
But at this time, and in this natal hour. 
Our song is of the blown and perfect flower. 

A hundred years ago, this rich June day, 
Kentucky left her glowing, girlhood way. 
And under boughs of fresh-appearing green, 
Put off the Princess and took on the Queen; 
And on this ground, unto the world unknown, 
She reared the splendor of her golden throne ; 



I I 2 The KenttLcky Centenary. 

From blood-stained leaves that strewed her forests great 
She wove and wore her purple robes of state, 
And from her vale-ways, under mountain brown 
She bought the laurels that became her crown. 

A hundred years ago, in that past noon, 

When this Queen rosebud burst upon the June, 

When from the wild, in native splendor drest. 

Uprose the first proud mistress of the West, 

The mother queen, beyond the mountain chain. 

Sang greeting to her peerless daughter's reign, 

Sang greeting to the glory of her child 

That broke the civil bound and braved the wild ; 

That so through test of sweeping fire and flood 

Had shown the coursing of her royal blood. 

No longer now, the savage made his rounds 

Among Kentucky's prehistoric mounds, 

No longer on the bison's lickward track 

Was heard his whoop and deadly rifle's crack, 

And o'er Ohio's waters, still and blue, 

No longer sped his silent war canoe — 

The unknown land had wakened from her dream. 

The night had passed and morning reigned supreme. 

A sovereign, in this sovereignty of States, 
She marched within the new Republic's gates. 
And proud, and strong, and undismayed, 
Unto the Union pledged her shining blade; 



IVediiesday, yuiie i, iSg2. 113 

Her faith she gave, as one of that free few, 

Against a common foe, her part to do ; 

To hold the compact and its terms fulfill, 

As ally bound, but else, the sovereign still; 

And through this reach of intervening years 

What faith has been more nobly kept than hers ? 

When on the lake-line, north, and further west, 

The savage war-cry rose, she sent her best, 

And every field and bloody battle plain 

Was sanctified and hallowed by her slain ; 

When Packenham, with England's proudest means, 

Swept boldly down on salient New Orleans, 

Who held the sacred bonds of union then 

Like young Kentucky's stalwart riflemen? 

And when in later days we came to know 

The sanguine fields of ancient Mexico, 

What braver troo[)s than hers, were braver led — 

What nobler blood than hers more nobly shed ? 

At once, as if some potent unseen hand ■* 

Had brought its magic to the new known land. 

The shadows of her forests lost their gloom 

And gave the world a wilderness of bloom. 

Where trails through gap and bowldered canon lay 

The burdened wlieels of commerce wore their way. 

And from the old unto the new abodes 

Were builded safe, and wide, and open roads. 

While to the silence of her bounding stream 

There came the creaking oar and hissing steam. 



I 14 The Kentucky Centenary. 



No longer now, to spoiling bands 

Were left her verdant courses ; 
No longer now, to waste, her lands 

Gave up their vital forces ; 
The white man's genius swept the plain 

With ax, and scythe, and fire, 
To fell the brakes of useless cane 

And stop the spreading brier. 

Where shoots of forest growth stood o'er 

Anil held their revel under 
His shining steel went down and tore 

Their massing roots asunder ; 
He broke the glebe and turned the sod 

To fit the soil for sowing, 
To give this garden-spot of God 

Its proper seed for growing. 

He felled the trees to rive the bonds 

That locked his fertile closes, 
And where the fern-beds grew their fronds 

He cleared a place for roses — 
Where once the old log-cabin stood, 

A fortress and a prison. 
His better home, of smoother wood, 

Or brick, or stone, had risen. 

While on his wheat-land seas the rays 
From sun-lit shocks were glowing, 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. i i 

His armied plains of stately maize 

Their dark-green ranks were showing ; 

And cattle on his thousand hills 

In knee-deep grass went straying, 

While in his valleys busy mills 
Their labor-tunes were playing. 

And, day by day, with muscle strong, 

From out her struggle gory, 
The young Kentucky moved along 

Her upland way to glory ; 
And all the sloth within her lines. 

From slumber long awakened, 
And all the germs of earth's confines 

In up])er light were quickened. 

Where mossing rock and stubborn oak, 

And ])ine, and fir environ, 
She gave lier miner's sturdy stroke 

To veins of coal and iron ; 
She delved the land and brought to light 

From under shafts and ditches, 
Her sinews of commercial might. 

Her store of hidden riches. 

And first, this side the eastern range. 

To sunlight's western dying, 
By urban site, and upland grange, 

Her wheels of steam went flying ; 



ii6 The Kentucky Ceiiteiiary 



And first in all this Western spread 

She built her signal stations, 
And laid the great electric thread 

Through which she spoke to nations. 

And first was she, by true foresight. 

Her statesmen sons in session, 
For universal suffrage right, 

To boldly give expression — 
She knew this great Republic's aim. 

Its object-points and motors, 
And to the world she dared proclaim 

The sovereign right of voters. 

By genius grand, by moral force. 

By muscle-strain and bleeding, 
This splendid empire's westward course, 

She won the right of leading ; 
And newer States, and newer time. 

And newer courses taken. 
Have left Kentucky's right sublime 

To lead and rule, unshaken. 

Throughout the North, and South, and West, 

To shores the sea-foam laces, 
Kentucky's sons, as first and best, 

Are called to highest places — 
This great republic's great among, 

When wisdom's ways are darkened. 



Wednesday, yune i , i8g2. 1 1 7 

The clear and free Kentucky tongue 
By all the world is harkened. 

On this, her sacred natal day, 

A hundred years gone over, 
With stately step she goes her way 

Through blooming fields of clover ; 
And never June came with its green 

For richer, deeper staining, 
Than comes this June to that proud queen 

Who ripens in her reigning. 

To-day, throughout her mountain vales. 

Her furnaces are glowing. 
And every-where her singing rails 

Their commerce-ways are going ; 
While old retorts give up their casts 

To sandy groove and furrow. 
Grand Rivers comes with newer blasts 

And Ashland, Middlesborough ! 

And all the midnight skies reveal 

Their leaping tongues of fire. 
As, mass on mass, their ingot steel 

These "plants" are piling higher. 
And busy forges beat their ware 

With swinging sledge and hammer. 
And busy nail-mills fill the air 

With labor's mighty clamor. 



1 1 8 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Through careful science, finer ores 

And richer coals are showing, 
And onward still, to golden shores. 

Our ships of search are going ; 
Willi steady march Kentucky's way 

Is through her science forces, 
And no frail mortal's arm can stay 

The progress of her courses. 

Hail to the Queen ! the fairest and the best 
That ever yet has reigned in this wide West, 
That from her royal mother's mountain bound. 
Came through, to grace and glorify the ground. 
Hail to the Queen ! who on this frowning wild, 
Looked with her sun-lit eyes until it smiled; 
Who in the darkness of a land unknown 
Built up the golden splendor of her throne. 
God save the Queen ! who shows her right to reign 
By royal flow of blood and strength of brain, 
Who rules and leads and keeps her forward way 
Toward the endless light of endless day. 



M/^ed7zes(iay, Jtine /, i8g2. 119 



The Centennial Banquet. 



AT eight o'clock in the evening, the Ordinary 
of the Gait House, tastefully decorated with 
flowers, was thrown open to the guests. At 
the center of the table, which was set in the form of 
a horseshoe, was a pyramid of smilax interspersed with 
flowers, that reminded one of a picturesque bed of rocks 
in the pioneer wilderness covered with vines and blos- 
soms. Behind this handsome ornament was the seat of 
the president of the club, so situated that every guest 
at the table was in view. At the entrance door was 
placed Eichorn's string band, which discoursed appro- 
priate music as the guests approached and took their 
seats. The following is a list of those members of the 
club who contributed to the expense of the banquet and 
of those who partook of it, and of the invited guests 
who were present : 

Hon. Charles Anderson. 
Alexander John Alexander. 
John B. Atkinson. 



I 20 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Mrs. John B. Atkinson. 
Miss Mary Lee Alexander. 

Hon. Horatio \Y. P)ruce. 

Mrs. Hon. Horatio W. Bruce. 

A. M. Brown. 

Geo. G. Brown. 

Mrs. Geo. G. Brown. 

Miss Lucia Blain. 

Colonel Joseph C. Breckinridge. 

Major Thos. W. Bullitt. 

Mrs. Major Thos. W. Bullitt. 

Temple Bodly. 

E. C. Bohne. 

Dr. Thos. Bohannon. 

Mrs. Dorothea Berthel. 

St. John Boyle. 

Rev. L. A. IManton. 

Archibald W. Butt. 

General Cassius M. Clay. 
John B. Carlisle. 
Mrs. Dr. David Cummins. 
Hon. James E. Cantrill. 
Mrs. Hon. James E. Cantrill. 



IVednesday, yune r , rS()2. 1 2 i 

Miss Mamie Casscdy. 

Robert Cochran. 

A. R. Cooper. 

Colonel Andrew Cowan. 

General John R. Castleman. 

Mrs. General John 11 Castleman. 

Reuben T. Durrett. 
Dr. Wm. T. Durrett. 
Mrs. Dr. Wm. T. Durrett. 
Colonel John Dils. 
Geo. M. Davie. 
Major Wm. J. Davis. 
Mrs. Major Wm. J. Davis. 
Hon. Samuel E. DeHaven. 
General Basil W. Duke. 
Miss Julia B. Duke. 

General John Echols. 
Mrs. General John Echols. 
Robert J. Elliott. 
Mrs. Kate Elliott. 
Hon. Charles Eaves. 
Mrs. Hon. Charles Eaves. 



122 TJu Kentucky Cenfettary 

D. 11. French. 
Win. Finley. 

Win. D. Gallagher. 
Howard M. Griswold. 
Mrs. Sarah J. Gamble. 
T. M. Goodnight. 

Rev. John \\. 1 lr\ wood. 

John T. Hogan. 

Alfred W. Harris. 

Miss Annie J. Hamilton. 

Ed. T. Halsey. 

A. H. Hovey. 

J. P. Helm. 

Miss Lucinda Helm. 

Charles Hermany. 

Mrs. Charles Hermany. 

Miss Madeline Hermany. 

Miss Mary Johnston. 

Colonel R. M. Kelley. 
Mrs. Colonel R. M. Kelley. 
J. G. Kinnaird. 

R. W. Knott. 



IVednesday, yune i. i6(/2. 123 



Hon, W'm. Lindsay- 
Mrs- Hon, WiTL Lindsay. 
J- W. Lewis. 

R- J- Menefee. 

Mrs. R- J. Menefee. 

Bur»-eU K. Marshall 

A, V. McKay. 

Major H. C. McDowell 

Hon, James S. Pirtle. 
Mrs. Hon- James S- Prrde- 
Eh-- X- Porter. 
Dr. Robert Peter. 
W. T. Po)nter. 
Dr. Thos. E. Pickett. 
Miss Kate Palmer. 
Miss Kate Powell 

John Roberts. 
O- W. Root. 
Geo. \V. Ranck- 
Mrs- Espes Randolph, 
John C. Russe". 

Hon- Z. F. Smith. 



124 ^^^^' Kentucky Centenaty. 



Mrs. Hon. Z. F. Smith. 

Major Henry T. Stanton. 

Miss Ruth Stanton. 

Miss Ida Elmore Symmes. 

Geo. W. Swearingen. 

Captain Thomas Speed. 

Mrs. Captain Thomas Speed. 

D. W. Stone. 

Miss Jessie Stewart. 

Major D. W. Sanders. 

Geo. D. Todd. 

James Weir. 

Hon. John D. White. 

Mrs. Hon. John D. White. 

R. A. Watts. 

Mrs. R. A. Watts. 

Miss Annie Wilson. 

Rev. Wm. H. Whitsett. 

Mrs. Louise Elliston Yandell. 
Malcolm Yeaman. 
John W. Yerkes. 
Mrs. John W. Yerkes. 



Wednesday, jftme i, i8g2. 125 

When the guests were all seated, Rev. Win. H. 
Whittsett, at the request of President Uurrett, asked a 
blessing. 

The Bill of Fare. 

Clear Consomme. 

Salted Almonds. 

Baked Red Snapper, Chambord. Sherry. 

New Potatoes. 

Sweetbread, Saute. Haute Sauterne. 

New Green Peas. 

Roman Punch. 

Cold Roast Mutton. Pontet Canet. 

New Cauliflower. 

Spring Chicken on Toast. Pomeroy Sec. 

New Asparagus. 

Lettuce and Tomatoes, Mayonnaise. 

Assorted Cakes. 

Fruit. Ice Cream. Strawberries. 

Coffee. 

Toasts and Responses. 

At ten o'clock. President Durrett, who occupied a 
seat at the head of the table and acted as master of 
ceremonies, rose and spoke as follows : 



126 The Kentucky Centenaiy. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : — As President of the Filson 
Club, it becomes my duty to act as toast-master on tliis 
occasion. I am not going, however, to follow the exam- 
ple of some officials of this kind of whom I have heard, 
and do most of the speaking myself. I am not going 
to propose any toast that needs comment or explanation 
from me, and I shall leave the respondents to do the 
speaking. We have commemorated the day with prayer, 
with introductory addresses, with a historic oration, with 
a patriotic poem, and with music ; but the commemora- 
tion could not have been complete without this banquet, 
with its toasts and responses yet to be heard. Banquets 
similar to this were the fashion at the time Kentucky 
separated from Virginia and became an independent state. 
Our forefathers, during the first years of the Republic, 
never neglected to celebrate the anniversary of the 2 2d 
of February, the birthday of Washington, and the 4th of 
July, the birthday of the Declaration of Independence, 
with banquets and toasts. They could think of no 
happier way oi honoring these memorable days than to 
celebrate them with food for the body and sentiment 
for the soul ; and it may well be doubted whether we 
can improve upon their estimate of such things. While, 
therefore, we have been filled with contentment by savory 
dishes, and with liveliness by inspiring wines, let us 



Wednesday, yune /, i8g2. 127 

follow the example of our forefathers with toasts and 
responses. The first toast I have to propose is, "The 
First President," and I call upon Judge Lindsay to 
respond to it. 

I. THE FIRST PRESIDENT. 
RESPONSE OF HON. WM. LINDSAY. 

It is most appropriate that Washington shall be first 
named upon this historic anniversary. In December, 
1 789, he recommended the admission of the District of 
Kentucky into the Union as a sovereign state, and two 
years afterward approved the act providing for that 
admission. I have somewhere read of a traveler, whose 
name I can not recall, who had visited every portion 
of the habitable globe, who said that in every country 
in which the story of the great American Republic had 
been told the name of Washington was received with 
the respect and reverence due him as the grandest 
character in history. Not because he was a successful 
soldier, who converted seven years of disaster and dis- 
appointment into ultimate and overwhelming success, nor 
because he proved himself a statesman equal to the 
creation of a nation upon the untried problem of the 
capacity of man for self-government, but because to his 
soldiership and statesmanship he added the crowning 



128 TJie Kentucky Centenary. 

grace and virtue of absolute and unselfish love of coun- 
try and of his countrymen. 

It was by the exercise of his great influence upon 
the people whose liberties he had won that the states 
were persuaded to accept the compromise of the consti- 
tution. Time and investigation have dimmed the laurels 
of some of those who served the Revolutionary cause 
to gratify their ambition for personal renown, but not so 
with Washington. His fame increases as his character 
is discussed and his conduct investigated. Kentuckians, 
Americans, honor him and venerate him to-day more 
than ever before, and our children's children will be 
taught to look to him as the great exemplar of the 
perfect American citizen and American patriot. 

The part taken by Washington in preparing the 
public mind for the convention of the states to frame 
the constitution, in directing the labors of the conven- 
tion, and presenting the advantages of the more perfect 
union to those who feared the destruction of the states, 
has never been sufficiently understood or appreciated. 
In all these things, he was the master spirit, whose 
moderation in counsel and courage in action led to re- 
sults that others, however eminent or patriotic, would 
have labored in vain to accomplish. Public positions, 
with him, were essentially public trusts. He sought no 



Wednesday, yiinc /, i8g2. 129 

place and shrank from no responsibilily. He was called 
by Congress to be commander-in-chief of the American 
armies. He was called by the people to the presidency 
of the new government, and when, after he had declined 
a re-election and retired to his home to resume the 
walks of private life, and war with France was threat- 
ened, all eyes turned to him as the one who should 
again lead the American armies to victory. No man 
ever received so many and so great honors at the hands 
of a grateful people, and no man ever wore his honors 
with greater modesty or more unassuming dignity. 

The world at large has given him credit for his 
grandeur of character, and wherever a people are look- 
ing forward to the day of their deliverance from the 
shackles of despotism, 

"Washington's a watchword such as ne'er 
Shall sink while there's an echo left in air." 

II. ISAAC SHELBY— THE FIRST GOVERNOR OF KENTUCKY. 

RESPONSE OF HON. ALEX. P. HUMPHREY. 

It has been one hundred years since Isaac Shelby 
was chosen as the first governor of Kentucky. Our 
minds can not fail to be startled at the changes time 
has wrought. But instead of this, take as more pertinent 



130 The KentiLcky Centenary. 

the period of his own life. He was born in 1750 and 
died in 1826. What events of moment to Kentucky, to 
America, to mankind, passed under his eye ! More per- 
tinent still is the part he played on this great theater 
of human action. 

There are some periods in the world's history in 
which the picture of individual conduct, however impor- 
tant, with however much of energy or boldness of thought 
or deed, becomes as nothing in the great frame of 
progress. The current of events rushes along with a 
sweep so mighty that every thing seems to partake of 
the movement, becoming merely a part of it, and in 
nothing to aid or influence it. A closer view will show 
us that the appearance is not reality. There has hap- 
pened a combination of marvelous and unwonted individ- 
ual forces, which, inspired by one purpose and pressing 
toward one aim, seem to have become a single impulse. 

Governor Shelby was a colonial soldier, a Revolu- 
tionary soldier, and a soldier in the war of 181 2. No 
one understood better than he that the inspiration of 
patriotism which hurried him forward to every post of 
danger, stirred the officers with whom he commanded and 
the soldiers with whom he fought. One of his last 
utterances was an indignant protest against an unjust 
criticism upon the riflemen who went with him from the 



Wednesday, jftme /, i8g2. 1 3 i 

back settlements to arrest the progress of Lord Corn- 
wallis ; and when Congress proposed to thank him for 
his conduct at the battle of the Thames, he refused to 
allow it unless the name of General Harrison was men- 
tioned in the same connection. 

There is a romantic interest imparted to his conflicts 
with the western Indians by the circumstance that, in 
1774, he took part in defeating Cornstalk in the great 
battle of Point Pleasant, and in 1813, rode at the head 
of his Kentucky riflemen against Tecumseh. 

He was at all times the typical American. 

If there is one thing which has done more than 
any other to make this Republic strong, independent, and 
free, it is the readiness with which the American citizen 
becomes the American soldier, and the equal readiness 
with which the American soldier becomes the American 
citizen. To follow the arts of peace ; to pursue it ; to 
shun war ; to make it the last resort ; if it comes, to 
step from the plow to the ranks at a moment's call ; 
when war is over, to have done with it, and to step 
out of the ranks back to the plow — such must be the 
conduct of a people who are long to be free. The 
greatest examples of true glory ever given by the Amer- 
ican people consist in the disbandment of the army of 
the Revolution and of the army of the Union. 



132 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Looking at Governor Shelby's military career we 
are struck by the fact that he never cared to be a 
soldier except when his side was getting the worst of it. 
In the darkest hours of the Revolution he abandoned 
his home and kept the field until the tide of war was 
completely turned. It was the defeat of Ferguson at 
King's Mountain that let in a great flood of light and 
hope upon the despondent cause of independence. The 
news of Raisin made him lay aside all scruples. Issu- 
ing his proclamation that his riflemen should meet him 
at Newport, he was at the rendezvous at the appointed 
time, and so were they. Once out of Kentucky he was 
without legal authority to command. But he no more 
cared for this than did they. He knew his men and 
they knew him. No highland chief was ever surer of the 
absolute devotion of his clansmen than he was of the 
loyalty of these riflemen of Kentucky. " Old King's 
Mountain will lead us to victory " was their watchword. 

He was twice governor, both times consenting to 
serve only because he felt in duty bound not to refuse. 
He declined to be appointed secretary of war, although 
offered the place by President Monroe. He was a true 
son of the soil. His beautiful farm — Traveller's Rest, he 
called it, so that all might know how willing was his 
hospitality — and the enjoyment of its peaceful pursuits 



Wednesday, ytine i, i8<^2. 133 

with his family about him, tliis was what he never will- 
ingly left, and to which he was always eager to return. 

I attempt no extended sketch of him. I give you 
no catalogue of his civic and military honors and 
achievements. If you are not aware of them you 
know nothing of the history of your state, nor of what 
debt you owe to those who have made all this possible 
to you. I want you to banish the present scene from 
your mind ; to look into the past and see if you can 
not conjure up this strong figure from among the 
shadows. There he stands at the door of his home. 
His broad acres lie far and near, smiling under a sum- 
mer sun. He is exultant in all the happiness that home 
and family can bring. To friend or stranger guest he 
extends the warmest greeting. 

You see him again, his face lighted with another 
glow as he hears of British incursion or Indian foray. 
You see him leap into the saddle, his rifle across the 
bow ; and away he rides, and there are the trusty 
riflemen behind him. Let them who will, and if they 
will, let them who can, bar the way. 

"Fleet foot on the correi, 
Sage counsel in cumber. 
Red hand in the foray, 
How sound is thy slumber." 



134 -^-^^^ KenttLcky Centenary. 



111. DANIEL BOONE. 
RESPONSE OF MAJOR WM. J. DAVIS. 

I. 

Over the south door of the rotunda in the Capitol 
at Washington is commemorated in sculpture an incident 
of pioneer life in Kentucky. Two Indians, armed with 
muskets as well as tomahawks, had suddenly come upon 
a white man armed with long-barreled rifle and hunting- 
knife. The white man leaped behind a tree and held 
them at bay. By a partial exposure of his person he 
drew their fire. One of the Indians was soon laid low 
by the unerring rifle. With tomahawk uplifted, and long 
knife unsheathed, the red man and the white man rushed 
toward the body of the prostrate Indian, arriving at the 
same time. The artist has depicted the supreme moment 
of the fight : the pioneer, tall, stalwart, resolute, clad in 
hunting-shirt, breeches, leggings, and moccasins of dressed 
deerskin, receives the swift-falling tomahawk on his up- 
lifted rifle barrel, and plunges the heavy knife to the 
hilt in the naked body of the savage. Daniel Boone 
was this pioneer. 

2. 

You are all familiar with the picture of a hunter, 



Wednesday, Jtine /, i8g2. 135 

clothed like the pioneer just described, who, standing on 
a rock-pinnacle, leaning on his long rifle, and, disregard- 
ing the Scotch deerhound by his side, looks out over 
the beautiful country stretching far into the distance. 
The landscape is the lovliest human eye hath seen : a 
gently undulating table-land of charming diversity — hill 
and hollow, forest and meadow, canebrake and green 
grass, in luxuriant and bewildering succession. 

This is the popular and poetic conception of Daniel 
Boone. 

3- 

A log cabin in a sequestered valley near the Ken- 
tucky river, where for months Boone passed his nights, 
the only white man in all this vast Indian hunting- 
ground. This is the scene I love most to contemplate. 
I do not think Boone's passion for hunting or love oi 
adventure caused him to remain alone in Kentucky when 
his companions returned to Carolina. He had come into 
this wonderful region, abounding in deer, buffalo, and 
wild turkey, with a soil of the like of which for fertility 
he had not dreamed, with a climate salubrious and de- 
lightful. His resolute soul was stirred to its depths, 
and he determined to possess this land for himself and 
his people. He had come to stay. He would hold the 
fort, so to speak. He held fast to this idea ; he could 



136 TJic KenhLcky Centenary. 

be deterred neither by hunger, nor by toil, nor by dan- 
ger, nor by death. A distinguished governor of Kentucky 
lone afterward said of liim : "To Boone alone is due 
the early settlement of this state ; had it not been for 
him, the conquest of Kentucky must have been achieved 
by the adventurous spirits of the nineteenth century." 

4- 

After years of heroic struggle and fearful vicissitude, 
the territory was wrested from the savage. "The young 
Kentucky, in her maidenhood," was very fair to see. Ru- 
mors of her fertile soil, majestic rivers, grand forests, noble 
plains, and mild climate spread abroad, and gave birth 
to those exalted notions of her natural resources which 
prevail in all the descriptions of Kentucky. The pride 
of her people continues ; to this day Kentucky is known 
as "the garden spot of the world," "a veritable para- 
dise;" her women are "the loveliest," her men "the 
manliest," her horses "the finest," her whisky "the best." 
This is right. God help that generation of Kentuckians 
who shall fail to view with pride the courageous man- 
hood of her sons, or cease to cherish with tender solici- 
tude the sweet maidenhood and chaste womanhood of her 
daughters ! 

Peace brouoht the arts and artifices of civilization. 



Wednesday, yune /, i8g2. 137 

Immigration became? active. Settlers poured in, bring- 
ing with them land-warrants, certificates, and grants, 
each intending to " locate " so many acres, wheresoever 
it pleased him. The government of Virginia made no 
surveys ; the territory was not subdivided into townships 
and sections, as was afterward done in the country north 
ol the Ohio. Careless surveying and ignorance of the 
law's requirements caused confusion of boundaries and 
provoked endless litigation. Surveys o( contiguous tracts 
made them overlap many times ; there were few " loca- 
tions " that were not "shingled" by opposing claims. 
Boone suffered with many others. He had reared his 
cabin in the center of this paradise, which he and his 
associates had reclaimed from the red devils. Had he 
not, indeed, once held all Kentucky in trust for Virginia ? 
But he neglected to put his claim on record. The land 
speculators " overlapped " his holding, and cited him 
before the courts. Deprived of the land he had won 
with such toil, vexed and sore of heart, Boone " pulled 
up stakes," and, leaving the home he loved and the 
friends he had stood with in battle, he "located" at the 
mouth of the Kanawha. 

After some years he removed to Missouri, where he 
received an extensive land-grant from the Spanish gov- 
ernor. But the territory passed into the hands of 



138 The Kenhtcky Centenary. 

France, and finally was purchased by the United States. 
Inquiry being instituted to see by what titles settlers 
hekl their lands, our pioneer was again " euchred " out 
of his property. But Congress voted him a grant ol 
land a few years before his death. 

5- 
Boone is described as being " five feet ten inches 

high, erect, clean-limbed, broad-shouldered, full-chested in 
form, admirably fitted in structure, muscle, temperament, 
and habit, for the endurance of the labors, changes, and 
sufferings he underwent. He had a model head — with a 
forehead high, noble, and bold ; thin and compressed 
lips ; a mild, clear blue eye ; a large and prominent chin ; 
a countenance in which courage and fearlessness sat 
enthroned, and which told the beholder what he had 
been, and was formed to be." 

His name is forever identified with the history of 
Kentucky. He will ever be regarded as the typical 
frontiersman, the chief of pioneers, the most famous 
backwoodsman. His homely virtues have been cele- 
brated in song by such poets as Byron and Bryant and 
our own Stanton and O'Hara. He is the autotype 
of Leather Stocking and Hawkeye. He will in all 
times be held a hero by Kentucky boys. 



Wednesday, June i, i8g2. 139 

IV. VIRGINIA. 

RESPONSE OF GENERAL BASIL W. DUKE. 

The name which has just been uttered stirs within 
US, more than any other, memories that we revere and 
cherish. 

Honor is due, and ever should be rendered, to each 
one of those original communities founded by brave men, 
in the fear of God and hope of freedom, on this Amer- 
ican soil, which is now our common country. But I do 
no injustice, I believe, when I say that we are especially 
indebted to three of the thirteen colonies — to South 
Carolina, Massachusetts, and V'irginia — for the essential 
principles on which have been erected the institutions 
which distinguish and, we trust, will perpetuate the 
government under which we live. In these three we 
recognize the matricial sources of American thought and 
feeling ; from them have proceeded the ideas and im- 
pulses which have most strongly impressed and shaped 
our civilization. Sometimes they have seemed so alien 
to each other in wish and sentiment as to make it 
hard of belief that similar or harmonious results could 
be reached by policies apparently so antagonistic. Yet 
we can discover that underlying the thought and aspira- 



140 The Kenittcky Centeitary. 

tion of each have been the same controlHng convictions ; 
and providentially, perhaps, but certainly, the action of 
each has been guided to the attainment of the same 
broad national character and the fulfillment, together, of 
the same duty to mankind. 

It is of Vireinia, however, that Kentuckians love 
best to speak. We, the children of her first and fairest 
daughter, may be pardoned if, in our veneration for her, 
we seem in a measure to forget the fame of her ma- 
jestic sisters. And the millions who inhabit the great 
states into which the wide territory she gave the Union 
has been divided — the grand communities her sons have 
founded, each scarce less than a nation in itself-— bear 
testimony, as we do, to the mighty and munificent des- 
tiny which has attended her history. 

Standing in the silent and desolate Forum, where 
once the Tribune spake the potent word which saved 
the weak from wrong and Counsul or Imperator issued 
mandates which bound a world in obedience — gazing on 
the wreck which 

"Goth and Christian, Time, War, Flood, and Fire" 

had wrougfht, where desecrated fane and shattered col- 
umn were symbols of a yet mightier social and political 



Wednesday, yime i, i8g2. 141 

ruin — a great poet apostrophized Rome as the " Niobe 
of the Nations," who had seen 

"All her glories, star by star, expire." 

But the canvas on which the mission of Virginia is 
limned furnishes no suggestion of decadence, either in 
its past or present, and gives augury of a future yet 
brighter and happier. When we remember what Virginia 
has done, and know that her work is but in part ac- 
compHshed ; when we witness the territory settled by 
her emigration expanding into an empire whose life 
may be as long and power as vast as Rome's ; when 
we behold the high spirit and lusty vigor of the parent 
undiminished in the offspring, and see the lessons learned 
from her still taught by them — we are reminded of the 
promise of the Lord to the patriarch : "I will multiply 
thy seed like the stars of heaven, and I will give thy 
posterity all these countries ; and in thy seed shall all 
the nations of the earth be blessed." 

Virginia has rendered services, not to the people 
of this country only, but to all humanity, which can not 
be denied or forgotten. zA.s time rolls on and mankind 
grows wiser and better, they will be the more profoundly 
appreciated. Every struggle which shall in the future 
be made by any people lor independence will be encour- 



142 The KenttLcky Centenary. 

aged and enlightened by her example. Every patriot 
who shall pour fourth "the burning words that tyrants 
quake to hear," will be inspired by the recollection of 
how Henry's denunciation of lawless power roused the 
courage of his countrymen. Every hero who gives his 
breast to the battle in resistance of oppression will have 
in his heart the memory of Washington ; and in the 
political philosophy of Thomas Jefferson, all those who 
seek to fix securely the foundations on which free states 
may be builded, and provide wise rules by which liberty 
and order may be maintained in unison, shall find in- 
struction and guidance. 

Virginia shared with her twelve sisters the glory won 
in the war for independence, and their zeal, courage and 
constancy were equal to her own ; but it should not be 
forgotten that she gave the first clear and emphatic 
declaration of a purpose to resist British aggression. 
"Virginia rang the alarm bell," "Virginia gave the signal 
to the continent," said distinguished men of other col- 
onies when Patrick Henry passed his famous resolutions 
through the House of Burgesses, denouncing the Stamp 
Act, and asserting that the General Assembly of Vir- 
ginia alone had the right to tax the people of that colony. 

In two other memorable instances she took action, 
which, it is not too much to say, assured the perpetuity 



Wediiesday, yiLiie /, i8g2. 143 

of republican institutions on this continent and made it 
impossible to establish or maintain, here, any form of 
kingly or autocratic rule ; and both arc intimately blended 
with the history of Kentucky. The brilliant author of 
" The Winning of the West " has shown that had Eng- 
land been permitted to retain possession of the territory 
north of the Ohio, the settlements in Kentucky and 
Tennessee could not have been maintained, all extensions 
west of the Alleghanies would have become impossible, 
and the newly formed Confederacy, restricted to the 
territory occupied by the original colonies, would have 
been in imminent danger from hostile communities spring- 
ing up around it under England's auspices and directed 
by English influence. From this danger it was saved 
by Clark's conquest of the Illinois. Henry and Jeffer- 
son encouraged and sustained George Rogers Clark, and 
Virginia furnished him the means of successful warfare. 
This too, when she was in the very agonies of the 
Revolutionary war and grappling with a powerful enemy 
on her own soil. 

Again did she come forward, not only as the cham- 
pion and protectress of her children in Kentucky and 
Tennessee, but as the ever ready and resolute asserter 
of republican ideas and American destiny, when she 
compelled the freedom of the Mississippi. At that date 



144 T^^^ KenhLcky Centenary. 

here, in the then remote west, it seemed that our 
fathers must accept the alternative of political separa- 
tion trom their brethren ol the Atlantic States, or permit 
the beautiful and fertile land they had won to remain in 
a condition scarce better than when possessed by the sav- 
age. To keep the Mississippi closed was to deny them 
all hope of improvement. Communication with the rest 
of the world, commerce, development, and civilization were 
then practically impossible, save by use of the great 
inland sea ; and that, denied them by the statesmen of 
the east, could apparently be purchased only by their 
becoming the allies, if not the subjects, of the Spanish 
crown. How baneful to American progress and even the 
cause of freedom that might have been we can now well 
realize. At this crisis, Virginia came once more to the 
rescue. Again Henry's prophetic voice sounded in 
indignant thunder ; wisely Madison counseled patriotic 
patience, but firmly pledged relief; and finally Jefferson 
removed the danger by his purchase of Louisiana, which 
forever guaranteed that, come what may, America shall 
control her own future. 

History will declare that right worthily Virginia has 
vindicated her title to the motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis," 
and with just pride her descendants may speak the name 



[Sung rv \\ \tk Dorothi'a Rkrthf.i,.] 



THE MOTHERS OF THE WEST. 



Words bj- WM. D. GALLAGIIia;. 
Moderalo. 



Jlusic by WILL a HAYS. 






^i^^fe 






L The niotli-crs of our Forest-laiul ! Stout-hearlcd dames were 
i Xlic uiotliL'rs of our Fort'st-laiul! On old Ki'iituck-v 
.'i. Till' molh (Ts of our Forc'st-laiid ! Their bo-.souis pil lowed 
4. The liiotli-ers of our Forest land ! Sueh werelni-ir dai - ly 
J. Tile mothers of our Forest-laud! They sleep in un-Unowu 







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tlu'y ; Willi iiervi.' to wield the battlv brand, And. jo in the border fray. Ourronsli land had no braver In its 

soil, How sbari'd tUey witli caeh daunik-ss band, War's tenipt-staud litr's toil ! Tliey shrank not from the foenieu. They 

men, And proud wi-re they by sut-li to stand, In lianmioek, fort orgh-n ; To load the sure old ri - He— To 

deeds; Their niouurnent— where does it stand? Their epitaph— who reads? Ko braver dames hud Sparta— No 

graves : And had they borne and nursed a band Of ingrates, or of slaves, They had not been more ne^'iectcd ! liuttiieir 



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days of blood and strife— 
quait'd not in the light, 

run tlie lead - en ball- 
no - bier nia- irons Rome- 
graves shall yet be found, 



Aye, read - y for se - ver - est toil. Aye, free to per - 11 life. 
But eheer'd their hus-bands thro* the day. And sooth'd them thro' the night. 
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Yet who oi' lauds or hon - ors them, Kv'u in their own green home? 
And their monuments dot here and there "The Dark and Blood ■ y Ground ! " 



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CHORUS. Soprano. Ril. 

Our rough land had DO braver, In days of blood and strife. Aye, read y for se- ver-est toil, Aye, free to per - il life. 

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Wednesday, yiine i, iSg2. 145 

of the heroic commonweahh "whose well laboring sword 
has three times slain the semblance of the king." 

All hail to our august mother! She will live through 
the agfes in the love and honor of all men who seek 
to do the right ; and may her spirit be with us and 
remain in us, now and forever. 

V. THE MOTHERS OF OUR FOREST LAND. 

In announcing the fifth toast, President Durrett said 
that in the " Golden Wedding," a noble tribute by 
William D. Gallagher to the brave women who helped 
to settle Kentucky, a pioneer is represented as coming 
before the guests and reciting those touching verses 
known as "The Mothers of the West;" that Will S. 
Hayes had composed an original air for these verses ; 
and that it would be an agreeable change in the pro- 
gramme to substitute music for eloquence in the response 
to this toast. He then introduced Mad. Berthel, and 
requested her to respond to " The Mothers of Our 
Forest Land " by singing the words of Mr. Gallagher 
to the music of Mr. Hayes. 



146 The Kentucky Centenary. 



VI. GEORGE ROGERS CLARK. 

RESPONSE OF TEMPLE BODLEY. 

Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen : — This seems 
to be a feast in honor of the pioneers of Kentucky, 
and reminds one of the old time when reverent Greeks 
took food and drink to the tombs of their ancestors 
and then ate and drank them themselves. I suppose, 
if one of our typical pioneers could look on at this 
feast and see us degenerate sons of Kentucky, clad in 
swallow-tail coats, eating with silver spoons and drinking 
sherry and champagne, he would draw his buckskin sleeve 
across his eyes to make sure of not dreaming, and then, 
with a frown and an Indian grunt, turn on his moc- 
casined heel and leave us in disgust. And I suppose, 
if we were sittinof in our front hall and the g^entleman 
in muddy leather leggins and coonskin cap were to call 
at our front door, we should think there was some mis- 
take and expect our servants to show him round the 
side way to the kitchen. The fact is, we are separated 
by far more than time from these early pioneers, and 
it takes a pretty vivid imagination to see them as they 
were and to measure their merits according to the truth. 
Their aims in life, their mode of thought, their manners 



IVcdnesday, jfu/ie i, iScj2. 147 

and dress, were so different from ours — the conditions 
surrounding them were so unlike what we know to-day, 
that I suppose only the few men whose sympathetic 
study has brought them into intimate acquaintance with 
Clark and his contemporaries can realize fully what they 
were. 

It was one hundred and nineteen years ago last 
month that a young engineer — a tall, fair-faced, beard- 
less young fellow of twenty-three, blue-eyed, light-haired, 
strong-jawed, and six feet four — George Rogers Clark — 
left his home in that beautiful Virginia valley of Albe- 
marle to come to this " Dark and Bloody Ground." 
That journey meant a good deal then. It meant toiling 
day alter day, over mountains and rivers and through a 
dark, tangled, and almost boundless forest. It meant 
week after week of solitude more profound than we can 
ever know, nights and storms without shelter, hunger, 
it may be, sickness, without help, and, more than all, 
the strain of constant guarding against the most crafty 
and cruel of foes — a foe whose life's training and chief 
delight was to waylay and torture and kill. The man 
who could face those dangers and not quail was of the 
stuff of which heroes are made ; and such were the 
pioneers of Kentucky. When young Clark came 
amongst them in 1775, they were a little handful scat- 



148 The Kentttcky Ceiitenaty. 

tered through the forest of Kentucky, without concert 
of action and about to be exterminated by British and 
Indians outnumbering them hundreds to one. A mere 
boy amongst mature men and a comparative novice in 
the pioneer's art, he yet seems to have at once stamped 
himself and been accepted as their leader. His first 
act was to urge prompt political and military organiza- 
tion. As their first delegate he returned to Virginia, 
procured the establishment of the county of Kentucky, 
and after overcoming the most discouraging opposition, 
returned prepared to carry on an offensive war for the 
possession of the Northwest Territory. That territory 
embraced all the country south of the lakes, between the 
Alleghanies, the Ohio, and the Mississippi. Virginia 
had claimed it, but England both claimed and held it, 
and, but for the conquest of it, the subsequent acquisi- 
tion of the broad country between the Mississippi and 
the Pacific, and, indeed, the very existence of the Fed- 
eral Union would seem to have been impossible. Had 
the thirteen colonies been confined to the narrow strip 
between the Alleghanies and the Atlantic, who can 
doubt that England, with Canada on the north, and the 
inviting empire between the Alleghanies and the Miss- 
issippi on the west, would soon have been able to crush 
them at will. Clark first saw the danger, and with the 



Wednesday, y^ine i, iS(j2. 149 

secret, but none the less effective assistance of Patrick 
Henry, then governor, met it. 

There is no time, Mr. Chairman, to tell here that 
most romantic story of the winning of the west ; how, 
with his little band of pioneers, this mere boy, not su- 
pinely waiting at home to be annihilated by an over- 
whelming enemy, boldly marched against them into 
their own country, how he reduced strongholds manned 
by forces many times greater than his entire command, 
how he overawed and subjected whole tribes of hostile 
Indians, and how, after what seems to me, as daring and 
arduous a campaign as any recorded in history — after 
weeks of toilsome progress through the flooded flats 
of the Wabash, for days without food, without even firm 
ground to rest on at night, they surprised and sur- 
rounded the veteran British commander and his outnum- 
bering troops in their own stronghold, and with their 
surrender became the undisputed masters of the entire 
northwest. The story has yet to be told. Some day 
in the pages of some Motley, Froude, or Prescott, the 
American people will learn it ; and this young " Hanni- 
bal of the West," who now lies under a small headstone 
out yonder in your " city of the dead," will not be 
without his glory and not without the gratitude of his 
countrymen in the ages yet to come. 



150 riic Kciihicky Lentefiary. 

Vll. THE FREEDOM OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
RESPONSE OF HON. JAMES S. PIRTLE. 

The subject given to me this evening is one which 
at once transports the mind baclc one hundred years and 
more, and is yet a topic of present interest. The im- 
portance to our ancestors of the free navigation of the 
Mississippi, the great weight which they attached to it, 
the excitement and indignation which the mere sugges- 
tion of the withdrawal of our claim to it for a few years 
aroused in the west are now hard for us to realize when 
the river, from its source near the great lakes to its 
mouth in the Gulf of Mexico, is within our territories, 
and our right to its peaceful, undisputed use is admitted 
by all the world. Still, by a slight effort of memory, we 
can recall how, after resting in quietness from 1803, when 
Louisiana was purchased, to 1861, the question again 
became a living one, and contributed in no small degree 
to unite the people north of the Ohio in the Mississippi 
valley in their determination that there should be no dis- 
ruption of the Union, and no nation but the United 
States in control of the mighty highway which the God 
of Nature had laid in everlasting greatness from the farth- 
est north to the extremest south of our western country. 



Wednesday, June /, i8g2. 



I =;i 



From 1763, when England became possessed of Can- 
ada and all the French possessions of North America, 
unitino- its dominions in a solid empire from the Atlantic 
to the Mississippi, and northward to the Arctic regions, 
there has never been a moment when the value of the 
use of the Father of Waters to the gulf has not been 
rightly appreciated by the thinking people of America. 

By the Treaty of Peace of 1763, the right to the 
navigation of the river to the gulf, with a place of de- 
posit, was secured to Great Britain, and when the United 
States became independent, the rights of Great Britam 
passed to the United States by the treaty of 1783. 
Spain, the owner of Louisiana, which embraced all the 
territory west of the Mississippi, did not recognize our 
succession to those rights, and by many an artifice and 
promise tried to tempt the young Kentucky to renounce 
allegiance to Virginia and the Confederate States, and 
set up for itself in the forests of the west an independ- 
ent state. That the temptation was artfully put, that the 
promises were alluring, that the seeming indifference of 
the old states on the Atlantic to our plea for sisterhood 
produced an effect, can not be denied. The wiser men 
of the east and of Kentucky saw the danger, and met 
it with courage and sagacity, and turned it aside. That 
there was ever any probability that Kentucky would set 



I 5 2 The Kentucky Centenary. 

up for herself, I do not believe ; that many adventurous 
and turbulent spirits, and some cool and able men, con- 
templated such a contingency, is beyond dispute, and 
when we consider the condition of Kentucky and of the 
new nation east of the mountains, it is not at all such 
an awful thought as disunion is to-day. 

Our fathers were separated by mountains and forests 
many days' journey from their old homes, making the 
separation in effect much wider than that which now 
exists between the Atlantic and the Pacific states. Com- 
mercial intercourse between them was not possible. The 
only highways they had were the streams which, rising 
in the mountains, flowed through the beautiful and fertile 
lands which by their valor our fathers had won from 
the savage, and joining the Ohio, flowed onward to the 
Mississippi, and by that mighty artery connected them 
with the pulsating heart of the world. 

When the population of the district of Kentucky 
had reached half a hundred thousand, and even a smaller 
number, the teeming soil, yielding to the industry of man 
such a return as had scarcely been known before, pro- 
duced more than the people needed for their own wants, 
and a market for the surplus became a necessity. Down 
those streams and upon the bosom of that mighty river 
alone could that market be found. 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 153 

Yoder, in his trade boat, fitted up upon the head- 
waters of the Ohio and floated to New Orleans, led the 
way, and others, eager to reap the reward of his enter- 
prise and adventure, followed in his wake. Could it be 
thought that this young people, who in so marvelous a 
manner had planted a commonwealth in a wilderness five 
hundred miles from the verge of civilization, would con- 
sent that a barrier should be placed across their avenue 
to the world's commerce ? Can it be a matter of wonder 
that they mistrusted the friendship and scorned the lack 
of wisdom of the old states that favorably received or 
considered a proposition to surrender in effect, for twenty 
years, the right of free navigation of the Mississippi ? 
The union of the states was not then that firm bond 
which holds them indivisibly as does the constitution of 
1787. Just freed from the yoke of England, each state 
felt more its own independence than its obligation to the 
others ; and as V'irginia was little bound to the other 
states, and the Union was of so little strength that 
patriots were fearful that the confederacy would drop to 
pieces, Kentucky, finding herself unsupported in her wars 
with the Indians, and knowing that the savages were 
encouraged by the British, who still held the forts in 
the North-west in violation of the treaty of 1783, and 
believing she was about to be abandoned by the northern 



I 54 TJic KenHicky Centenary. 

old states in the protection of her most vital right, may, 
without blame, have contemplated the contingency of 
winning for herself her way to the sea, or securing by 
treaty commercial relations with Spain. 

There was no secrecy of the determination of our 
forefathers never to surrender their right to navigate the 
Mississippi to the Gulf — they would not for a moment 
admit that there was any question of that right. Colonel 
Thomas Marshall, an able man, father of Chief-Justice 
Marshall, wrote to General Washington in clearest terms 
what the feeling in Kentucky was when that right was 
threatened. That sage, from the quietness of Mt. Ver- 
non, and with the calmness so characteristic of him, 
replied that, while he feared little any present danger 
of an outbreak from the west, that whenever it became 
necessary for the prosperity of those people to have that 
free navigation, no force on earth could prevent their 
taking it. The time that Washington foresaw was, even 
to his vision, far distant. 

John Jay, another patriot, after securing in the treaty 
of 1783 the right to the free navigation of the Missis- 
sippi, and struggling for years with Spain for its recog- 
nition, wise as he was, and patriotic and well-informed, 
so little foresaw the growth of the West, or knew the 
then strength of Kentucky, that he was willing, in order 



Wednesday, jfune i, i8g2. 155 

to effect a commercial treaty with Spain, to agree that 
for twenty years no assertion of our right should be 
made. Before half that period had expired, Thomas 
Jefferson, divining the West and its incalculable value 
to the whole country, seized the opportunity offered by 
the necessities of Napoleon, and by peaceful treaty ac- 
quired all the territory west of the Mississippi from the 
Gulf to the farthest north of our present boundaries. 

In 1803, after the treaty with Napoleon was made, 
this western country was aflame with indignation by the 
action of Spain denying our right to a place of deposit 
and to the navigation of the river, and had not the 
treaty with Napoleon given the country to us, the same 
men who, imder Jackson twelve years later, upon land 
which Spain had owned, beat back in the battle of New 
Orleans the soldiers of the army of Wellington, would 
have marched triumphantly to the Gulf and driven the 
Spaniard into the sea. 

Never again shall domestic foe hold any of the ter- 
ritory washed by the great river. The bold spirit which 
inspired our forefathers still lives in us, and will forever 
live in our descendants, and by the strength of this vast 
nation keep the way to the sea clear of all foreign foes. 
The ceaseless flow of the waters shall keep singing in 
our ears the song of the perpetual union of the states. 



I 5 6 The Kentucky Centenary. 

inspiring our hearts with devotion to that Union, and 
the mighty stream shall remain forever the free highway 
of the richest valley of the earth. 



VIII. JOHN FILSON. 
RESPONSE OF CAPTAIN THOMAS SPEED. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : — The hands 
of my watch admonish me that the first century of Ken- 
tucky's existence as a state has just drawn to a close. It 
will, therefore, be my rare privilege to make my speech 
in the next century. 

It is not to be expected that the name of John 
Filson will call forth such eloquence as the names of 
Washington, Boone, and Clark ; yet, if I mistake not, we 
may with equal profit consider the work and character 
of John Filson, and, perhaps, with more encouragement 
to ourselves. We may all reasonably expect to escape 
being as great as George Washington ; we are not likely 
to become mighty hunters, like Boone, and as none of 
us are candidates for the presidency just now, we have 
not the interest of George Rogers Clark in carrying 
Illinois. But we may, by diligent use of opportunity and 
the powers we have, do something for our state in the 
manner and after the example of John Filson. Respond- 



Wednesday, yicne i, i8g2. i 5 7 

ing to the toast "John Filson," I will speak ot him as 
a man worthy to have a historical society called by his 
name. 

He came to Kentucky from Pennsylvania in the year 
1782. He occupied his time teaching, surveying, and 
traveling over the country. He made one trip back to 
Pennsylvania and returned again. He explored the coun- 
try north of the Ohio, and at one time owned land on 
which the city of Cincinnati was afterward built. He 
gave to the little settlement then the romantic name of 
Losantiville. The ingenuity displayed in constructing this 
name is worth mentioning ; L signifies the river Licking ; 
OS, the Latin word for mouth ; anti, opposite ; ville, town 
— town opposite the mouth of the Licking. Not far from 
that place he was killed by Indians in the year 1788. 

Filson was profoundly impressed with the excellence 
of the western lands, and in 1784, after two years' intel- 
ligent observation, he wrote his little book entitled. The 
Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucky ; 
with it was a map of the country, the best up to that 
time made. 

His account was pronounced, at the time it was pub- 
lished, to be an excellent performance, very accurate, and 
of great utility. It was the first history of Kentucky. 

To understand the full import of the title, we must 



1 5 8 The Kenhtcky Centenary. 

realize the fact that Kentucky, as a desirable country for 
occupation, was discovered only a short time before its 
settlement. The people east of the mountains knew, in- 
deed, that there was land extending far away toward the 
west, but for aught they knew the mountains continued 
on and on with their wild, inhospitable, and uninhabit- 
able grandeurs. It was not known, as we now know it, 
that on the waters of the Ohio lay spread out a de- 
lightful region like the Garden of the Lord for beauty 
and fertility. When the eyes of Boone and his com- 
panions rested upon it the first time they were enrap- 
tured, and called it a second paradise. The secluded 
and hid away condition of Kentucky has been beautifully 
described this day by our poet laureate. Our realization 
of this fact may be assisted if we reflect that with all 
the energy and activity of the nineteenth century it was 
as late as the year 1870 when the wonders of the Yel- 
lowstone country were first explored. So when the 
early explorers — among them Daniel Boone — found the 
level lands of Kentucky, the news went back and created 
astonishment and wonder among the inhabitants of the 
Atlantic border. 

When Filson wrote, the settlement of Kentucky was 
a new feature upon the map of America. And even 
then it was a small population scattered over the choicest 



Wednesday, June /, i8g2. 159 

sections of the country. It was a new chapter in the 
progress of advancing humanity when Filson pubhshed 
to the world his account of the discovery and settlement 
of Kentucky. 

His book was published in this country and in Eng- 
gland, and translated and published in France and 
Germany. It awakened an interest in the new found 
paradise, and a wonderful tide of immigration poured 
in. Eight more years elapsed, and Kentucky became 
a state in the Union, at a time when western Pennsyl- 
vania was unoccupied, and all of western New York was 
still the home of Indian tribes. 

Filson saw that he was in the presence of in- 
teresting events, and with an intelligent grasp of the 
situation, he wrote of the splendid advantages of the 

country. 

To crown his work he gave an account of the most 
interesting man in the west. He sat down by the side 
of Daniel Boone and took from him the story of his life. 
Boone was not a man to write his own memoirs ; he 
could cast his eagle eye along his rifle and draw a bead 
quick as a flash, and touch the trigger without a tremor, 
but he was not skilled with the pen. With an aim as 
unerring as that of Robin Hood he could bring down 
the soaring wild fowl to his feet, but it required another 



i6o The KenttLcky Centenary. 

hand to pluck the quill and tell the story of his exploits 
— that was the hand of John Filson. It was Filson 
who preserved Boone's own account of his discovery 
of Kentucky, of his hunting and exploring, of his In- 
dian fights, capture and captivity at Chillicothe and 
Detroit ; of his escape and return to Kentucky to give 
warning of the coming Indian attack ; of the siege of 
Boonesboro, and the battle of Blue Licks ; and all that 
series of heroic deeds, while he, by his boldness, saga- 
city and tireless activity protected the infant settlements 
in the wilderness. 

We have heard an eloquent tribute to the old 
pioneer to-night. We have read the life of Boone as 
given by Abbott and Bogart and others, with a thrill of 
interest. From whom do all obtain their facts ? They 
are all indebted to Filson. But for Filson little would 
be known of Boone. His little book is the one foun- 
tain Irom which every narrative flows. It was Filson's 
account which kindled the poetry of Byron, and it is 
the foundation of every historic mention. 

Filson saw his opportunity and made opportunity a 
duty. Is not this an example worthy of imitation ? 
Filson was imbued with that sentiment of Dr. Johnson : 
" He who would be counted among the benefactors of 
posterity, must, by his own toil, add to the acquisitions 



[Sung nv Mrs. Katie Elliott.I 



MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME. 



Poco adagio. 



STEPHEN C. FOSTEK. 



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1. The sun shines bright ill the oUi Ken-tiicli-y homo, 'Tis summer, the (larl;-ies nro gay, The corn-top's ripe and the 

2. Thev hunt no more for llie pes- sum and the coon On the meadow, the hill and shore, They sing no more by the 

3. The'head must bow and the back will have to bend, Wher-ev-er the dark - y may go; A few more days and the 






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meadow's in the bloom. Wljile the birds make music all the day ; 
glimmer of the moon, On the bench by the old cab -in door; 
irou-ble all will end In the held wliere the su-gar-canesgrow ; 



The young folks roll on the lit - tie cab-in floor. All 

The day goes by like a shad-ow o'er the heart. With 

.\ few more days for to tote the wea-ryload. No 



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mer-ry, all hap-py and bright, By'n-by Hard Times comes a-kiiockingat the door. Then my old Kentucky Tlome, good-night, 
sorrow* where all was delight! The time has come w hen I lie darkies have to part. Then my old Kentucky Home, good night! 
mat-ter, 'twill never be light, A tew more days till we tot- ter on the road. Then my old Kentucky Home, good-night! 



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Weep no more, my la-dy, Oh, weep no more to-day ! We will sing one song for the old Kentucky Home, For the old Kentucky Home far away. 

Air. \st Soprano. 



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Weep no more, my la-dy, Oh, weep no more to-day ! We will sing one song for the old Kentucky Home, For the old Kentucky Home far away. 



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Wednesday, June /, i8g2. i6i 

ot his ancestors." These are words worthy to be in- 
scribed on the banner of the Filson Chib. 

His book does not read Hkc Gibbon or Macaulay. 
The historian McMaster' calls him a pedantic school- 
master ; yet his account of Boone will perpetuate his 
name forever. The "schoolmaster" will be known when 
McMaster is forgotten. He did not write in a style 
suggestive of the library and the midnight oil. It rather 
suggests the woods and the cabin and Indians. 

During the civil war, a judge in the interior of 
Kentucky wrote a law book. He could not agree always 
with the soldiers who occupied his town, and sometimes 
he had to flee for his life. In his preface, he said in 
a plaintive strain that his " book was written amid 
scenes of trouble and impending danger not favorable 
to that easy and regular flow of language which gives 
grace of style and perspicuity of diction." Perhaps it 
was so with Filson, yet he gave to the world a picture 
of Kentucky as it was eight years before it became a 
state. 

A few years ago, ten men in this city, among them 
that bright spirit now gone, Colonel John Mason Brown, 
formed a society for the study of Kentucky history. 
They called it The Filson Club. The best wish we can 
make for it is that it may be imbued with Filson's spirit. 



1 62 The Kenhicky Centenary. 

The first work it did was to gather up the scattered 
fragments of information about John Filson found in old 
and perishing manuscript, and preserve them in imper- 
ishable print. That work was done by our worthy 
president. He wrote in times of serene and white- 
winged peace, favorable to graceful style and perspicuity 
of diction. His life of Filson takes its place alongside 
those of the masters in the art of biography. It is 
thus that facts are preserved from oblivion. Traditions 
fade ; manuscripts perish. The printed volume is the 
antidote of decay. The continuous existence of a his- 
torical society from Filson's day until the present, imbued 
with the spirit of Filson, would have saved much now 
gone to oblivion. How little do we know of the men 
who made Kentucky a state ! We have no biography 
of Isaac Shelby or George Nicholas or Joshua Fry. 
Except for Filson, there would be none of Boone. Men 
filling the highest public station, strong in intellect, wise 
and patriotic, lived in Kentucky from the earliest days — 
through the settlement period ; through the Indian period ; 
seeing Kentucky admitted into the Union ; through the 
administrations of Shelby, Garrard, Greenup, and Scott ; 
throuo;h the war of 1812, and the old and new court 
controversy. What a picture of Kentucky life and society 
would the biographies of such men present ! 



Wednesday, June i, i8g2. 163 

While much has been lost, much may yet be gath- 
ered up and rescued from decay, and the continuous 
existence of the Filson Club will preserve of current 
events that which posterity will look back upon and 
esteem precious. May the spirit of Filson animate the 
Filson Club. 



IX. MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME. 

President Durrett, when he announced the ninth 
toast said : I doubt not, ladies and gentlemen, that all 
of you have been thinking of your homes — of the homes 
of your ancestors and of yourselves — while listening to 
what the different speakers have said of our native state. 
If there be on this earth a home that is dear to the 
loyal heart, it is the Kentucky home. John Howard 
Payne, in his immortal " Home, Sweet Home," sung of 
the universal home, but Stephen Collins Foster, in his 
no less undying song, sung of the Kentuckian's home. 
Foster was not a native Kentuckian, but he dwelt long 
enough among us to catch the inspiration, to come under 
the enchanting spell of the home of the Kentuckian. I 
know you would rather hear Foster's song on this occa- 
sion than the rarest burst of eloquence, and, fortunately, 
there is one present who can sing it as it was never 



164 The Kentucky Centenary. 

sung by another. I take pleasure in introducing to 

you Mrs. Katie Elliott, and in requesting her to respond 

to the toast, " My Old Kentucky Home," with the words 
and music of Foster. 



X. RECOLLECTIONS OF PIONEER TIMES. 

When Mrs. Elliott had finished singing " My Old 
Kentucky Home," and the guests who had risen to 
their feet had resumed their seats, President Durrett 
said : The tenth toast will be our last, and after it our 
banquet will close with a benediction by Rev. L. A. 
Blanton. I see at our table a native born Kentuckian, 
whose venerable years carry him back to the days of 
the pioneers. He is the son of the soldier, Col. Richard 
C. Anderson, who did good service for the patriot cause 
in the Revolutionary war. His father came from Vir- 
ginia to Kentucky among the early settlers, and built 
an old-time manor house on the head waters of Bear 
Grass, near the famous Lynn's Station. Here, in the 
midst of historic surroundings, the son now with us, 
first saw the light early in the present century. It is 
fitting that this venerable Kentuckian, the oldest native 
born among us, should connect us with the past on this 
occasion, by telling us something of his experiences in 



Wednesday, June i, i8g2. 165 

life. His young years blended with the old ones ot the 
pioneers who were passing away as he grew up, and his 
recollections of some of thorn can not fail to be inter- 
esting to us as told by him. He is the proper person 
to respond to our last toast, and to close our festivities 
in honor of the centennial anniversary of our statehood. 
I therefore call upon this venerable Kentuckian, the Hon. 
Charles Anderson, to respond to the toast "Recollections 
of Pioneer Times." 

response of hon. charles anderson. 

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Kentuckians, Ladies 
AND Gentlemen :— I have come more than two hundred 
miles especially to manifest my loyal reverence to this 
noble festival in honor of the centennial of our honored 
and beloved native state. I must at once assure you 
each and all, old and young, ladies and gentlemen, that 
I have been superabundantly repaid for my unwonted 
enterprise and trouble in accomplishing this honorary 
duty. I have enjoyed with surprised delight this mag- 
nificent scene, in which we are at once spectators and 
actors, and most particularly that spirit of zest or en- 
thusiasm which has been, as it were, a living soul to it 
all. I have been charmed, sir, with the short speeches 
in response to the toasts of an admirable programme. 



1 66 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Speeches on such occasions, even when orated by native 
Kentuckians, who can outtalk the world, are, usually, the 
the driest if not the stalest of the viands furnished in 
the feast. But we have enjoyed in these speeches that 
rarest blessing, the union of valuable thought and wit, 
as sparkling and brilliant as your champagne, and all 
with marked brevity. Think of that actual accomplished 
fact, my friends! "With brevity," a lot of native Ken- 
tuckians, most of them lawyers, and all of them politi- 
cians, to make such charming speeches as we have heard 
here to-night in such short periods of time! 

Such, then, being the example of brevity set me by 
those who have preceded me, I must try to be brief also. 
When my olden friend. Colonel Durrett, told me at the 
beginning of our feast that he particularly desired me to 
close it with some parting memories of the past, I did 
feel like recalling to remembrance the names, at least, 
of our pioneer fathers and mothers of the Revolution, 
and a few of the next later age, whom I have person- 
ally known as a child knows old and grown folks here 
and hereabouts. 

Passing, but not myself forgetting, my own father, 
Colonel Richard C. Anderson, and his namesake son, who 
was born in this city on the corner of Main and Fifth 
streets one hundred and four years ago, these early 



Wednesday, June /, i8g2. 167 

memories were of Colonel Richard Taylor, about the 
same age of my father, that is, born in 1750, in Vir- 
ginia, the same year that Dr. Walker discovered Ken- 
tucky, and his son, " Old Zack," the twelfth president 
of the United States ; Major Wm. Croghan and his 
eldest son, George Croghan, the famous hero of San- 
dusky; General Robert Breckinridge; Major J. Hughes; 
Captain Isaac Hite ; Captain Wm. Field ; Governor Wm. 
Clark, of Missouri ; General Wm. Preston ; Colonel John 
O'Fallon ; Colonel Arthur Campbell ; Major Wm. Christie, 
of St. Louis ; Captain Wm. Chambers, our nearest neigh- 
bor, except Ensign Robert Tompkins, my uncle, and my 
ABC teacher, and, as I believe, in an age of pure 
men, one of the purest men who ever honored his sex 
and race; Captain Pomeroy and his eldest son, "The 
Esquire," and my second teacher ; the two Lawrences, 
Samuel and Leven ; their Maryland kith, the Dorseys ; 
old Preacher Vance, of Middletown, and his early family; 
Edward Tyler, the father of that Louisville Bock of most 
useful citizens and great-grandfather of the present mayor 
of Louisville ; Worden Pope, the more than father to all 
of those boys from the backwoods Dutch settlement 
around Brunerstown, now jeffersontown, and he was also 
always one of Jefferson county's very best pioneer ofhcers 
and citizens ; Captain Shreve, of our pioneer mercantile 



1 68 The Kentucky Centenary. 

marine, to whom, in the early twenties, Louisville gave 
a public dinner for making the trip with his steamboat 
from New Orleans to the Falls in twenty days. But the 
list of our pioneer men and women — God bless the pio- 
neer women ! it is a blush-burning shame for us to 
forget them in our toasts and speeches, if not in our 
memories — is too long for further specification at this late 
hour. For living human nature has its rights, especially 
if tired, sleepy, and surfeited by speech and viands. 
Therefore, pitying you all from my heart, I now close 
this loose gabble by asking your patient attention to a 
correction of our pioneer history as printed in books. 

All our public traditions and books describe Benja- 
min Logan, that most hardy, heroic, and useful of the 
pioneers save Boone alone, as having rushed out from 
his fort in broad daylight, under the fire of the inclosing 
Indian host, to save a wounded comrade outside among 
the Indians, who was loudly clamoring for rescue. And 
he did actually accomplish this extraordinary and unpre- 
cedented feat without the least injury to himself or to 
the precious burden on his shoulders. So, indeed, did 
yEneas bear his old father, Anchises, at the fall of Troy. 
But Homer expressly informs us that this proceeding 
was not under the eyes of the Greeks. Now, I have 
the authority and license from a granddaughter of that 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 169 

pioneer bravest of braves, my own niece, who here sits 
beside me, Mrs. Sarah J. Gamble, to give the actual 
truth of history for this famous but always misreported 
story. It was as enacted briefly thus : The comrade, 
named Burr Harrison, was wounded and disabled from 
every power except that of speech. He was not a native, 
but assuredly a genuine Kentuckian at that early date. 
He laid at some distance from the fort, and was sur- 
rounded, of course, by Indians. They obviously forbore 
to finish his life and clamors, simply because they felt 
cocksure that his scalp was perfectly safe with them in 
their own good time, and because, being themselves 
securely treed, they were keeping him as their stool 
pigeon, in order to lure his fellows from the fort into 
a common destruction. Any early hunter of Kentucky 
knew this ruse of those Indians through his own expe- 
rience in certainly killing the doe by wounding or seizing 
her fawn, so as to make it bleat, or either by a good 
imitation of its bleat. I myself am old enough to have 
tried and succeeded in that trick in my own deer-hunting 
days. And, before all, the beautiful paroquettes, solely 
through this instinct of fellow feeling, were utterly ex- 
terminated from all our forests. I have known a whole 
flock to be killed down to its very last green and gold 
beauty. They all flew back to the rescue of their 



I 70 The Kenhtcky Centenary. 

wounded and screeching fruit-pilfering comrade. Shot 
after shot, until all were murdered. Logan, who was 
not only fearless, but was also remarkably sensible and 
resourceful, biding his time until dusk, told his wife to 
bring him their sole and scantily stuffed feather bed. It 
was, doubtless, the pioneer feather bed in that primitive 
wilderness. Feathers were not then a native product. 
The pioneer feathers were all brought as a cushion to 
the pack-saddle for the mother and her babe over the 
far mountains and along my friend Speed's now classic 
wilderness road. The fort's regular supply of pork 
habitually wandered around it for corn or recognition in 
the shape of huge white sows and barrows. These the 
Indians had spared, for two reasons : first, they had 
neither bullets nor arrows to spare for this four-footed 
game ; and next, being sure of certain and speedy capt- 
ure of the fort and its all, they were saving this bacon 
also for their own good time. So soon as the twilight 
deepened to the point of proper obscurit)-, when even 
Indian eyes might mistake a hero lor a sow, Logan 
spread this loose feather bed over himself, and, all un- 
armed, walked out on all fours, straying around idly, 
rooting and grunting, it may be, until he reached his 
despairing comrade. Then, shouldering him in ^■Eneas 
fashion, he rushed glimmering through the gloom to the 



Wednesday, yune /, iS(^2. 171 

sally-port, which was, of course, open for his reception. 
A hasty shower of surprised balls and arrows flew around 
him as he fled, but their aim failing from darkness and 
from the surprise of their shooters, they missed their 
mark, and, scattering around Logan, struck in the logs 
of the fort, and in the lintel and jambs of the door. 
And thus were this hero and his friend saved to the 
services of their country and of civilization by an act of 
heroism as brave, skillful, and magnanimous as any, the 
most celebrated in history or romance. Indeed, in its 
magnanimity, it is almost without a parallel. 

The authenticity of this narrative is absolute. I 
regret that we can neither make nor accept this assur- 
ance with many of our so called historic events. I\Iy 
niece often heard this narrative from her Aunt Polly 
Smith. She was the second daughter of Colonel Logan, 
and next after his daughter Jenny, the wife of the great 
lawyer, Colonel John Allen, the martyr hero of the mas- 
sacre at the River Raisin. Mrs. Smith was a grown 
married woman, living for years in the close neighbor- 
hood of both her father and mother before they died. 
Aunt Polly received this account directly and repeatedly 
from her father and mother. When I add that each of 
these informing descendants, daughter and granddaughter, 
were genuine offspring of that hero, who was pre-emi- 



I 7 2 The Kentucky Centenary. 

nently as truthful and honest as he was brave and 
magnanimous, I feel quite sure that I have made out 
this case for reforming our stereotyped pioneer history. 
May I beg my friend, the secretary of the Filson Club, 
to attend to this correction, at least, in the Archives. 

This is a plain intelligible story. To that large class 
of people who love the marvelous and believe the impos- 
sible, because it is impossible, it will be an unwelcome 
correction. But the truth of history ought to be pre- 
ferred to any sensationalism whatever. 

And now, my fellow Kentuckians, having used up 
the late first century, Kentuckian as I am, I will no 
longer occupy this, the fresh new century of our state- 
life, by detaining you from your own feather beds. 
Doubtless you will reverse your respective positions on 
them to that of the hero in our o'er true tale, and 
awake, I trust, refreshed and happy in this dawn of 
Kentucky's second century. And so, good-night to you 
all. As for me, thanking you for your most sweet 
patience, I subside, collapse with the passing century, 
into silence. 



Wednesday, J tine i, i8g2. 173 



The FiLSON Club. 



THE FILSON CLUB was organized in Louisville, 
Ky., on the 15th of May, 1884, for the pur- 
pose of collecting and preserving the history 
of Kentucky. Those who were present and participated 
in the organization were Reuben T. Durrett, Richard H. 

o 

Collins, William Chenault, John Mason Brown, Basil W. 
Duke, George M. Davie, James S. Pirtle, Thomas W. 
Bullitt, Alexander P. Humphrey, and Thomas Speed. 
Reuben T. Durrett was elected president, and Thomas 
Speed secretary, these being the only officers embraced 
in the original organization. These gentlemen have held 
the offices of president and secretary ever since, and now 
occupy them. 

Since the organization, Richard H. Collins and John 
Mason Brown have died, thus leaving only eight of the 
original members living. William Chenault has since 
moved to Kansas, so that there are now only seven of 
the founders of the club living in Kentucky. 

On thelsth of October, 1891, the club was incorpo- 



I 74 The Keniucky Centenary. 

rated by adopting and filing articles of incorporation in 
the clerk's office of Jefferson county, in accordance with 
the 56th chapter of the General Statutes. The seven 
founders of the club yet living in Kentucky, Reuben T. 
Durrett, Basil W. Duke, George M. Davie, James S. 
Pirtle, Thomas W. Bullitt, Alexander P. Humphrey, and 
Thomas Speed, signed these articles of incorporation. 
The new organization provided for a vice president, a 
treasurer, and an executive committee. J. Stoddard 
Johnston was elected vice president, E. T. Halsey treas- 
urer, and the executive committee made to consist of the 
president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. The 
entire management of the club is intrusted to this execu- 
tive committee. 

Since the organization of the club it has published 
seven monographs, as follows : 

1. The Life and Times of John Filson, the First 
Historian of Kentucky. By Reuben T. Durrett. Quarto, 
pp. 132. 

2. The Wilderness Road, or Routes of Travel by 
which our Forefathers reached Kentucky. By Thomas 
Speed. Quarto, pp. 75. 

3. The Pioneer Press of Kentucky. By William H. 
Perrin. Quarto, pp. 93. 



Wednesday, J-une i, i8g2. 



/D 



4. The Life and Times of Judge Caleb Wallace. 
P>y William H. Whitsett. Quarto, pp. 151. 

5. The History of St. Paul's Church, Louisville, Ky. 
By Reuben T. Durrett. Quarto, pp. 75. 

6. The Political Beginnings of Kentucky. By John 
Mason Brown. Quarto, pp. 263. 

7. The Centenary of Kentucky ; giving the full pro- 
ceedings of the celebration of the one hundredth anni- 
versary of Kentucky's statehood, a sketch of the Filson 
Club, and a list of its members. 

Besides these publications, a number of papers con- 
taining valuable historic and biographic matter have 
been prepared by different members and read to the 
club and filed among its archives. Also, manuscripts 
and scraps of history and biography have been collected 
and stored among its archives. Some members have 
made gifts to the club of articles of different kinds, well 
worthy of preservation. Books and pamphlets and papers 
have been contributed by General Cassius M. Clay, 
George W. Ranck, Henry T. Stanton, Thomas H. Har- 
din, Alfred W. Harris, Bennet H. Young, and Reuben 
T. Durrett. Valuable relics have been contributed by 
Hon. William E. Russell, Dr. Robert Peter, Dr. Thomas 
E. Pickett, Hon. Henry F. Turner, and Thomas W. 
Parsons. Old letters and manuscripts of the pioneer 



I 76 The Kentucky Ce7tte7iary. 

period have been contributed by Mrs. Mary Starling 
Payne and Mrs. Julia Guthrie Smith. Miss Jessie 
Stewart has contributed a crayon portrait of the late 
Colonel John Mason Brown, drawn by herself. 

Since the organization of the club, new members 
have been constantly added, until the whole number 
now exceeds five hundred. It has been the policy of 
the club to have one or more members in each county 
of the state, for the purpose of co-operative work in 
the collecting and preserving of local history. In a few 
of the counties no members have yet been elected, but 
it is the intention to secure them as soon as suitable 
persons can be selected. 

No persons residing outside of Kentucky have yet 
been elected to the club. Those members now residing 
in other states were elected while in Kentucky, and 
have since changed their residence. Neither have any 
honorary members yet been chosen. 

The following is a full list of the members of the 
club, alphabetically arranged : 



Wednesday, Jitne /, i8g2. 177 



Members of the Filson Club. 



Abel, Rev. John J. Colcsburi,^ Ky. 
Adair, Davis LaFayette. Hawesville, Ky. 
Alcorn, Hon. James W. Stanford, Ky. 
Alexander, Miss Mary Lee. Louisville, Ky. 
Alexander, Alexander John. .Spring Station, Ky. 
Allen, James Lane. Lexington, Ky. 
* Allen, Hon. Alfred. Hardinsburg, Ky. 
Allen, Herman C. Princeton, Ky. 
Allen, Cornelius Tacitus. Princeton, K)-. 
Allison, Young E. Louisville, Ky. 
Allmond, Prof. Marcus B. Louisville, Ky. 
Alves, Gaston M. Henderson, Ky. 
Anderson, Hon. Charles. Kuttawa, Ky. 
Anderson, Colonel Latham. Cincinnati, O. 
Anderson, Lucien. Mayfield, Ky. 
Apperson, Lewis. Mount Sterling, Ky. 
Atkinson, John Bond. Earlington, Ky. 
Atherton, John AL Louisville, Ky. 
Averill, Dr. W. H. " Frankfort, Ky. 



Deceased. 



1 78 The KcnttLcky Centenary. 

Babbage, John Daviess. Hardinsburg, Ky. 

* Baird, Alexander Barnett. Hartford, Ky. 
Baker, Herschel Clay. Columbia, Ky. 

* Baker, General Alpheus. Louisville, Ky. 
Barr, Hon. John W. Louisville, Ky. 
Bartlett, Miss Mary G. Louisville, Ky. 
Barker, Henry S. Louisville, Ky. 
Barker, Max S. Louisville, Ky. 
Beatty, James W. Beattyville, Ky. 

* Beatty, Rev. Ormond. Danville, Ky. 
Beckham, James Coleman. Shelbyville, Ky. 
Beckner, Wm. M. Winchester, Ky. 

Bell, John A. Georgetown, Ky. 
Belknap, Wm. R. Louisville, Ky. 
Bell, Captain W. E. Lawrenceburg, Ky. 
Bierbower, Frederick Huber. Maysville, Ky. 
Blain, Miss Lucia. Louisville, Ky. 
Blackburn, Hon. J. C. S. Versailles, Ky. 
Blanton, Rev. L. A. Richmond, Ky. 
Bodley, Temple. Louisville, Ky. 
Bohannon, Dr. Thomas. Louisville, Ky. 
Bohne, Ernest Christian. Louisville, Ky. 
Boone, Miss Annie. Louisville, Ky. 
Boring, Hanson. Madisonville, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



Wednesday, yunc /, iSg2. \ /(; 

Bourne, James INI. Louisville, Ky. 

* Bowman, John B. Lexington, Ky. 

* Bowmar, Dan. M. Versailles, Ky. 
Bowser, Mrs. Annie C. Louisville, Ky. 
Boyle, St. John. Loui.sville, Ky. 
Boyle, Samuel G. Danville, Ky. 

* Boyce, Rev. James P. Louisville, Ky. 
Brandies, Dr. Albert S. Louisville, Ky. 
Bradley, W. O. Lancaster, Ky. 
Bradford, Henry Thompson. Augusta, Ky. 
Bransford, Clifton Wood. Owensboro, Ky. 
Breckinridge, Hon. W. C P. Lexington, Ky. 
Brents, John Allen. Albany, Ky. 

Bristow, F. H. Elkton, Ky. 

* Brown, Colonel John Mason. Louisville, Ky. 
Brown, Geo. G. Louisville, Ky. 

Brown, John Watson. Mt. Vernon, Ky. 
Brown, Governor John Young. Henderson, Ky. 

* Brown, Richard J. Louisville, Ky. 
Broadus, Rev. John A. Louisville, Ky. 
Browder, Wilbur Fisk. Russellville, Ky. 
Brown, Alfred M. Elizabethtown, Ky. 

* Bruce, Benjamin Gratz. Lexington, Ky. 
Bruce, Hon. Horatio W. Louisville, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



i8o The KenUicky Centenary. 

Bruce, Henry Clay. Vanceburg, Ky. 

Bryan, Hon. James William. Covington, Ky. 

Buchanan, John W. Louisville, Ky. 

* Buckner, Colonel James F. Louisville, Ky. 
Buckner, Governor .Simon B. Rio, Ky. 
Buck, Hon. Charles W. Louisville, Ky. 
Bullitt, Hon. Joshua F. Louisville, Ky. 
Bullitt, Major Thos. W. Louisville, Ky. 
Bullock, Dr. Waller Overton. Lexington, Ky. 
Burnam, Hon. Curtis F. Richmond, Ky. 
Burnett, Hon. Theodore L. Louisville, Ky. 
Bush, William Walter. Franklin, Ky. 

Bush, John W. Smithland, Ky. 

Bushong, Dr. Perry W. Summershade, Ky. 

Byron, Larkin Alonzo. Manchester, Ky. 

Castleman, General John B. Louisville, Ky. 
Castleman, Mrs. Alice B. Louisville, Ky. 
Cantrill, Hon. James E. Georgetown, Ky. 
Cantrill, Mrs. Mary C. Georgetown, Ky. 
Campbell, John Alexander. Carlisle, Ky. 
Campbell, Benjamin Smith. Hopkinsville, Ky. 

* Caldwell, Junius. Louisville, Ky. 

Caldwell, Hon. John William. Russellville, Ky, 

* Deceased. 



Wednesday, yurie i, i8g2. i8i 

Caldwell, Geo. Alfred. Louisville, Ky. 
Cawein, Madison J. Louisville, Ky. 
Catlin, Miss Olive B. Louisville, Ky. 
Cain, Paul. Louisville, Ky. 
Cardin, Alpheus Hamit. Marion, Ky. 
Carroll, William. New Castle, Ky. 
Calhoon, Isaac. Calhoon, Ky. 
Carlisle, John B. Lebanon, Ky. 
Carpenter, Wilhoite. Salt River, Ky. 
Cary, Gipson Taylor. Calhoon, Ky. 
Cecil, Henry A. Cecilian, Ky. 
Chandler, Joseph H. Campbellsville, My. 
Chappell, James Augustus. Carlisle, Ky. 
Chenault, Hon. William, Fort Scott, Kan. 
Chenault, Prof. Jason W. Louisville, Ky. 
Childress, Rufus J. Louisville, Ky. 
* Churchill, Hon. Samuel B. Louisville, Ky. 
Clay, Hon. Cassius Marcellus, Jr. Paris, Ky. 
Clay, General Cassius Marcellus. White Hall, Ky. 
Clay, Hon. James Franklin. Henderson, Ky. 
Clayton, Philip Day. Dixon, Ky. 
Cleveland, Rev. Henry W. Louisville, Ky. 
Cochran, Robert. Louisville, Ky. 
Cooke, Rev. John James. Sedan, Kan. 

* Deceased. 



1 82 The KenttLcky Centenary. 

Coleman, Rev. Henry R. Louisville, Ky. 
* Collins, Richard H. Louisville, Ky. 
Cooper, Albert R. Louisville, Ky. 
Cowan, Colonel Andrew. Louisville, Ky. 
Cox, Joseph Blackburn. Taylorsville, Ky. 
Crenshaw, J. W. Cadiz, Ky. 

Crittenden, Colonel Robert Henry. Beattyville, Ky. 
Curry, D. J. Harrodsburg, Ky. 

Darby, Franklin Wyatt. Princeton, Ky. 

Daviess, Mrs. Maria T. Harrodsburg, Ky. 

Davie, Geo. M. Louisville, Ky. 

Davis, Major William J. Louisville, Ky. 

Davis, Mrs. Angele Crippen. Louisville, Ky. 

De Haven, Hon. Samuel E. Lagrange, Ky. 

Dembitz, Lewis N. Louisville, Ky. 

Denny, Archibald Kavanaugh. Shelby City, Ky. 

Descognets, Mrs. Anna R. Le.xington, Ky. 

Dickey, Mrs. Fannie Porter. Glasgow, Ky. 

Dickey, Rev. John Jay. Jackson, Ky. 

Dils, Colonel John, Jr. Pikeville, Ky. 

Dixon, Dr. Archibald. Henderson, Ky. 

Dougherty, Wm. Holman. Owingsville, Ky. 

Durrett, Reuben T. Louisville, Ky. 

* Dece.ised. 



Wednesday, ytinc /, iS(j2. 183 

Durrett, Dr. Win. T. Louisville, Ky. 

Uurrett, Mns. Sara li. Louisville, Ky. 

Dudley, Rev. Richard M. Georgetown, Ky. 

Dudley, Rt. Rev. Thomas U. Louisville, Ky. 

Duncan, Henry T. Lexington, Ky. 

Duncan, Samuel M. Nicholasville, Ky. 

Duncan, John. Louisville, Ky. 

Duncan, Mrs. Fannie Casseday. Louisville, Ky. 

Duke, General Basil W. Louisville, Ky. 

Dulaney, Hon. William LeRoy. Bowling Green, Ky. 

Dulin, Edward Fairfax. Greenup, Ky. 

Dupoyster, Joseph Crockett. Wicklifle, Ky. 

Dyer, John W. Caseyville, Ky. 

Eaves, Hon. Charles. Greenville. K)-. 
Echols, General John. Louisville, Ky. 
Edwards, Hon. Isaac W. Louisville, Ky. 
Ellis, Hon. William T. Owensboro, Ky. 
Evans, Robert Graham. Danville, Ky. 

Fall, James Slater. Adairville, Ky. 
Faulkner, Henry Cork. Barboursville, Ky. 
Fennessy, Rev. David. St. Mary's, Ky. 
Field, Hon. Emmet. Louisville, Ky. 
Finley, Wm. M. Louisville, Ky. 



I 84 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Finley, Alex. C. Russcllville, Ky. 

Flippin, Manlius Thompson. Tompkinsville, Ky. 

Fonda, Mrs. Mary Alice Ives. Louisville, Ky. 

Ford, James William. Hartford, Ky. 

Ford, Arthur Y. Louisville, Ky. 

Forgy, James Monroe. Morgantown, Ky. 

Francis, Samuel. Sassafras, Ky. 

French, David Humphrey. Lagrange, Ky. 

Fulton, John Anderson. Bardstown, Ky. 

Fuqua, Dr. Wm. M. Hopkinsville, Ky. 

Gallagher, Wm. D. Louisville, Ky. 
Gait, Dr. Wm. H. Louisville, Ky. 
Gardner, Dudley Williams. Salyersville, Ky. 
Garred, Arnoldus J. Louisa, Ky. 
Garnett, Walter F. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
Garnett Virgil Alonzo. Pembroke, Ky. 
Garnett, James Bayard. Cadiz, Ky. 
Garnett, Hon. James. Columbia, Ky. 
Geiger, John Samuel. Morganfield, Ky. 
Gilbert, Abijah. South P\irk, Ky. 
Gibson, Hart. Lexington, Ky. 
Glenn, J. J. Madisonville, Ky. 
* Goodloe, John K. Louisville, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



IVednesday, Juite i, iScj2. 185 

Goodloe, Miss Abbie Carter. Louisville, Ky. 
Goodwin, Alexander Campbell. Owensboro, Ky. 
Goodnight, Hon. Isaac Hcrschel. Franklin, Ky. 
Goodnight, Thos. Mitchell. Franklin, Ky. 
Gordon, Rev. Percy. Louisville, Ky. 
Gorin, Harry Campbell. Glasgow, Ky. 
Grant, Dr. Thomas P. Louisville, Ky. 
Grant, Dr. Emory A. Louisville, Ky. 
Green, LaFayette. Falls of Rough, Ky. 
Green, Thomas M. Maysville, Ky. 
Griswold, Howard M. Louisville, Ky. 

Hagan, Frank. Louisville, Ky. 
Hager, John Franklin. Ashland, Ky. 
Haldeman, Walter M. Louisville, Ky. 
Haldeman, Bruce. Louisville, Ky. 
Hale, H. S. Mayfield, Ky. 
Hale, Josiah. Owensboro, Ky. 
Halsey, Ed. T. Louisville, Ky. 
Halbert, George T. Yanceburg, Ky. 
Hampton, Kensey John. Winchester, Ky. 
Hampton, Miss Lydia. Louisville, Ky. 
Hamilton, Miss Anna J. Louisville, Ky. 
Hanna, Charles Morton. Cropper, Ky. 
Hardin, Hon. Charles A., Sr. Harrodsburg, Ky. 



1 86 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Hardin, Hon. Parker \V. Harrodsburg, Ky. 

Hardin, Thomas Helm. Harrodsburg, Ky. 

Harris, Alfred W. Louisville, Ky. 

Harris, Hon. Walter O. Louisville, Ky. 

Harris, Abner. Louisville, Ky. 

Harcourt, Ashton Perry. Louisville, Ky. 

Hardwick, James R. Stanton, Ky. 

Haswell, James Gibbs. Hardinsburg, Ky. 

Harvey, Rev. William P. Louisville, Ky. 

Harvie, Lewis Edwin. Frankfort, Ky. 

Hays, James Waverly. Elizabethtown, Ky. 

Hays, Major Thomas H. Louisville, Ky. 

Helm, Mrs. Emily Todd. Elizabethtown, Ky. 

Helm, Miss Lucinda B. Louisville, Ky. 

Helm, James P. Louisville, Ky. 

Hemphill, Rev. C. R. Louisville, Ky. 

Hendrick, Hon. Wm. Jackson. Flemmingsburg, Ky. 

Hendrick, James Paul. Flemmingsburg, Ky. 

Henton, Mrs. Sara Hansborough. Louisville, Ky. 

Hermany, Charles. Louisville, Ky. 

Hewitt, General Fayette. Frankfort, Ky. 

Heywood, Rev. John H. Louisville, Ky. 

Hiebee, ]\Iiss Hester. Louisville, Kv. 

Hill, Reviben Douglas. Williamsburg, Ky. 

Hill, Hawthorne. Louisville, Ky. 



Wednesday, June i, 18(^2. 187 

Hill, General Samuel Ewing. Hartford, Ky. 

Hindman, Hon. J. R. Columbia, Ky. 

Hines, Hon. Thomas Henry. Frankfort, Ky. 

Hixson, \Vm. D. Maysville, Ky. 

Hobson, J. P. Elizabethtown, Ky. 

Hobson, General Edward Henry. Greensburg, Ky. 

Hogan, John T. Versailles, Ky. 

Hoke, Hon. Wm. B. Louisville, Ky. 

Hopper, James \V. Louisville, Ky. 

Howard, Hon. Henry Lewis. Harlan C. H., Ky. 

Howe, James Lewis. Louisville, Ky. 

* Hughes, Daniel Henry. Morganfield, Ky. 
Humphrey, Hon. Alex. P. Louisville, Ky. 

* Humphrey, Rev. Edward P. Louisville, Ky. 
Humphreys, Mrs. Sarah Gibson. Versailles, Ky. 
Huntoon, Benj. B. Louisville, Ky. 
Hungerford, Rev. Benj. Franklin. Shelbyville, Ky. 
Hurst, William L. Stillwater, Ky. 

Huston, George. Morganfield, Ky. 

Ireland, Hon. William Crutcher. Ashland, Ky. 

Jacob, Hon. Richard Taylor. Westport, Ky. 
Jacob, Hon. Charles D. Louisville, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



1 88 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Jacobs, Robert Powell. Danville, Ky. 
* Jackson, Hon. Wm. L. Louisville, Ky. 
Jansan, Jeptha Crawford. Calhoon, Ky. 
Jefferson, Dr. Walter Bowling. Elkton, Ky. 
Johnson, Colonel E. Polk. Louisville, Ky, 
Johnson, John Williams. Calhoon, Ky. 
Johnston, Miss Henrietta Preston. Louisville, Ky. 
Johnston, Hon. Josiah Stoddard. Louisville, Ky. 
Johnston, Miss Mary. Louisville, Ky. 
Jones, James W. London, Ky. 
Jones, Stephen E. Louisville, Ky. 
Jones, Mrs. Mary K. Newport, Ky. 
Jones, Henry Clay. Monticello, Ky. 
Joseph, LaFayette. Louisville, Ky. 
Jouett, Edward S. Winchester, Ky. 
Joyes, Patrick. Louisville, Ky. 

Kastenbine, Dr. Lewis D. Louisville, Ky. 

Kearns, Dr. Charles. Covington, Ky. 

Kelley, Colonel Robert M. Louisville, Ky. 

Kennedy, Hanson. Carlisle, Ky. 

Kerr, Charles. Lexington, Ky. 

Ketchum, Mrs. Annie Chambers. Louisville, Ky. 

Kimbley, John Franklin. Owensboro, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 189 



Kinnaird, James Grant. Chilesburg, Ky. 
Kinkead, William Bury. Lexington, Ky. 
Kinkead, James A. Elizabethtown, Ky. 
Kirby, Prof. Maurice. Louisville, Ky. 
Knott, Richard W. Louisville, Ky. 
Knott, Hon. J. Proctor. Lebanon, Ky. 
Knott, William Thomas. Lebanon, Ky. 

Lafon, Miss Mary. Louisville, Ky. 

Lewis, James William. Brandenburg, Ky. 

Lillard, Robert Whitley. Lebanon, Ky. 

Lindsay, Hon. William. Frankfort, Ky. 

Lindsay, Charles M. Louisville, Ky. 

Lindsey, General Daniel Weissiger. Frankfort, Ky. 

Lisle, William James. Lebanon, Ky. 

Little, Judge Lucien P. Ovvensboro, Ky. 

Lockett, Hon. John W. Henderson, Ky. 

Logan, Rev. J. V. Richmond, Ky. 

Logan, Emmet G. Louisville, Ky. 

Lyon, Hylan Benton. Eddyville, Ky. 

Lyon, Thompson A. Louisville, Ky. 

MacKoy, Hon. Wm. H. Covington, Ky. 
Manning, Isaac S. Manchester, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



190 The Kentucky Centenary. 

* Marshall, Thornton F. Augusta, Ky. 
Marshall, Humphrey. Louisville, Ky. 
Marshall, Burvvell K. Louisville, Ky. 
Marshall, Charles Alexander. Washington, Ky. 
Marshall, Matthew Crittenden. Kuttawa, Ky. 
Martin, Henry Clay. Munfordville, Ky. 
Matthews, John Wiley. New Castle, Ky. 
McAfee, Mrs. Nellie Marshall. Louisville, Ky. 
McAfee, John |. Louisville, Ky. 
McBeath, Hon. Thomas Robert. Litchfield, Ky. 
McCain, Joseph Watkins. Bedford, Ky. 
McChord, William Caldwell. Springfield, Ky. 
McClarty, Clinton. Louisville, Ky. 
McCloskey, Rt. Rev. Wm. G. Louisville, Ky. 
McConathy, Major Wm. J. Louisville, Ky. 
McCreary, Hon. James B. Richmond, Ky. 
McCready, Rev. Wm. George. Versailles, Ky. 
McChesney, Frank L. Paris, Ky. 
McDonald, Allen H. Louisville, Ky. 
McDonald, Major E. H. Shenandoah Junction, W. Va. 
McDonald, Captain Wm. N. Berryville, Va. 
McDonald, Donald. Louisville, Ky. 
McDowell, Dr. Hervey. Cynthiana, Ky. 
McDowell, Major Henry Clay. Lexington, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



Wednesday, yune i, i8g2. 191 

McFerran, John B., Jr. Louisville, Ky. 
McHenry, Hon. John Hardin. Owensboro, Ky. 

* McHenry, Hon. Henry D. Hartford, Ky. 
McKay, Allen Vaughn. Bardstown, Ky. 
McKenzie, Hon. James A. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
McNary, Hugh Flournoy. Princeton, Ky. 
McPherson, Hon. John W. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
McQuown, Lewis. Glasgow, Ky. 
McReynolds, John Oliver. Elkton, Ky. 
Meacham, Chas. ^L Hopkinsville, Ky. 
Menefee, Richard J. Louisville, Ky. 
Menefee, Mrs. Sarah Bell. Louisville, Ky. 
Miller, Miss Elvira Sydnor. Louisville, Ky. 
Miller, Shackelford. Louisville, Ky. 

Miller, Howard. Louisville, Ky. 
Miller, Reuben A. Owensboro, Ky. 
Mitchell, William. Mount Sterling, Ky. 
Montgomery, James. Elizabethtown, Ky. 
Moreman, Albert W. Brandenburg, Ky. 
Morrow, Hon. Thomas Zantzenger. Somerset, Ky. 
Morris, Geo. \V. Louisville, Ky. 
Moses, Rev. Adolph. Louisville, Ky. 

* Moore, Hon. Laban Theodore. Catlettsburg, Ky. 
Morton, Hon. Jeremiah Rogers. Lexington, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



192 The Kenhu'ky Ce^itenary. 

Moss, Thomas Edward. Paducah, Ky. 
Moss, Nathaniel Pleasant. Clinton, Ky. 
Murray, Hon. John Allen. Cloverport, Ky. 
Murray, Hon. David R. Hardinsburg, Ky. 

Newberry, Tevis Wellington. Inez, Ky. 
Noe, William Berry. Calhoon, Ky. 
Norman, Major Lewis Conner. Frankfort, Ky. 
Nunn, Otho. Sullivan Station, Ky. 

O'Connell, Cornelius J. Bardstown, Ky. 
O'Sullivan, Daniel E. Louisville, Ky. 
Ouchterlony, Dr. John A. Louisville, Ky. 
Owsley, Hon. Wm. Francis. Burksville, Ky. 

Palmer, Dr. Edward R. Louisville, Ky. 
Palmer, Miss Kate. Louisville, Ky. 
Patrick, Hon. Samuel Houston. Jackson Ky. 
Patterson, Rev. James K. Lexington, Ky. 
Payne, Mrs. Mary Starling. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
Payne, James Brown. Elizabethtown, Ky. 
Parsons, Charles Monroe. Pikeville, Ky. 
Parsons, Thomas Wilborn. Mount Sterling, Ky. 
Parker, John Wm. Fletcher. Somerset, Ky. 
Parker, Edward. London, Ky. 



Wedjiesday, yune i, i8g2. 193 

Peak, Robert Francis. Bedford, Ky. 

Pendleton, John Edward. Hartford, Ky. 

Penick, Benjamin \Vm. Greensburg, Ky. 

Perry, Rod. Warsaw, Ky. 

Perkins, Benj. T. Elkton, Ky. 

Perkins, Hon. George Gilpin. Covington, Ky. 

Perkins, Rev. Edmund T. Louisville, Ky. 

Peter, Dr. Robert. Lexington, Ky. 

Peters, Hon. Belvard January. Mount Sterling, Ky. 

Pettus, William Henry. Somerset, Ky. 

* Perrin, Wm. H. Louisville, Ky. 
Pickett, Rev. Joseph D. Frankfort, Ky. 
Pickett, Dr. Thos. E. Maysville, Ky. 
Pickett, James Abner. Finchville, Ky. 
Pirtle, Hon. James S. Louisville, Ky. 
Poage, Rev. George Bernard. Brooksville, Ky. 
Poignand, Yoder. Taylorsville, Ky. 

Porter, Dr. Newton. New Castle, Ky. 
Porter, Wm. Logan. Glasgow, Ky. 
Powers, Joshua Dee. Owensboro, Ky. 
Powell, Miss Kate. Louisville, Ky. 
Poynter, Wiley Taul. Shelbj^ille, Ky. 

* Preston, General William. Lexington, Ky. 
Procter, John R. Frankfort, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



194 T^^^^' Kentucky Centenaiy. 

Pryor, Hon. Wm. S. New Castle, Ky. 
Puckett, James Elbert. Munfordville, Ky. 

Ouisenberry, Anderson C. Washington, D. C. 

Ramsey, William Randall. London, Ky. 
Ranck, Geo. W. Lexington, Ky. 
Ray, Joseph F. Edmonton, Ky. 
Reed, Wm. M. Benton, Ky. 
Reed, Charles. Paducah, Ky. 
Reid, Josiah Davis. Mount Sterling, Ky. 
Revill, Jo. C. Burlington, Ky. 
Reyland, Wm. S. Russellville, Ky. 
Reynolds, Dr. Dudley S. Louisville, Ky. 
Richardson, Orla Coburn. Brandenburg, Ky. 
Ridgley, Benj. H. Louisville, Ky. 
Riddle, Hon. Robert. Irvine, Ky. 
Rivers, Rev. Richard H. Louisville, Ky. 
Robbins, Josephus Ewing. Mayfield, Ky. 
Roberts, John. Louisville, Ky. 
Robertson, Harrison. Louisville, Ky. 
Rodes, Robert. Bowling Green, Ky. 
Rodman, Dr. James. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
Rogers, Dr. Coleman. Louisville, Ky. 
Root, Oliver Wyatt. Newport, Ky. 



Wednesday, yune i, 18(^2. 195 

Ross, William Parks. Carlisle, Ky. 
Rout, Rev. Gelon H. Versailles, Ky. 
Rowntrec, Rutherford Harrison. Lebanon, Ky. 
Rudy, James Henry. Owensboro, Ky. 
Russell, Hon. William Edwin. Lebanon, Ky. 
Russell, John C. Louisville, Ky. 
Rutledge, Arthur. Louisville, Ky. 

Sampson, John Riddle. Middlesborough, Ky. 
Sanders, Major David W. Louisville, Ky. 
Savage, Samuel S. Ashland, Ky. 
Salyer, John Preston. West Liberty, Ky. 
Scott, Dr. Preston B. Louisville, Ky. 
Scott, Dr. Samuel Sneed. Florence, Ky. 
Scott, Thomas Wynne. Ducker, Ky. 
Sea, Mrs. Sophia Fox. Louisville, Ky. 
Sebree, Elijah Garth. Henderson, Ky. 
Semple, Mrs. Patty B. Louisville, Ky. 
Seymour, Charles B. Louisville, Ky. 
Settle, Evan E. Owenton, Ky. 
Settle, Rev. Henry C. Louisville, Ky. 
Shanks, Quintus Cincinnatus. Hartford, Ky. 
Shirley, George Douglas. Louisville, Ky. 
Shipp, Barnard. Louisville, Ky. 
Simpson, Asa Pitman. Jamestown, Ky. 
Simrall, Hon. John G. Louisville, Ky. 



196 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Smith, Mrs. Julia Guthrie. Louisville, Ky. 
.Smith, David Highbaugh. Hodgenville, Ky. 
Smith, Hon. Zacariah F. Louisville, Ky. 
Smith, William Mayfield. Mayfield, Ky. 
Smith, Joshua Soule. Lexington, Ky. 
Somers, Henry Augustus. Elizabethtown, Ky. 
Speed, Captain Thomas. Louisville, Ky. 

* Speed, Thomas S. Bardstown, Ky. 
Spencer, Rev. John J. Eminence, Ky. 
Stanton, Major Henry T. Frankfort, Ky. 
Staton, James William. Brooksville, Ky. 
Starling, Samuel McDowell. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
Stephenson, Daniel. Barboursville, Ky. 
Stephens, Heuston Perry. Burlington, Ky. 
Steele, John Andrew. Midway, Ky. 

* Stites, Hon. Henry J. Louisville, Ky. 
Stites, John. Louisville, Ky. 

Stone, Hon. Wm. Johnson. Kuttawa, Ky. 
Stone, Dr. Barton Warren. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
Stewart, A. H. Prestonsburg, Ky. 
Stewart, Miss Jessie. Louisville, Ky. 
Stewart, Dr. John Ouincy Adams. Frankfort, Ky. 
Straus, Franklin Pierce. Shepherdsville, Ky. 
Stuart, Thomas G. Winchester, Ky. 
Sublett, David Dudley. Salyersville, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



Wednesday, y^inc i, iSc)2. 197 

Sudduth, Watson A. Louisville, Ky. 
Sweeny, James J. Owensboro, Ky. 
Swearingcn, Geo. W. Louisville, Ky. 
Symmes, Miss Ida Elmore. Louisville, Ky. 

Taney, Miss Mary Florence. Covington, Ky. 

* Taylor, Harrison D. Hartford, Ky. 
Tevis, Robert C. Louisville, Ky. 
Thorne, William Pryor. Eminence, Ky. 
Thornton, Robert Augustine. Lexington, Ky. 
Thomas, Claude. Paris, Ky. 

Thomas, James Mason. Paris, Ky. 
Thompson, Captain Ed. Porter. Frankfort, Ky. 
Thompson, Joseph Pinckney. Lebanon, Ky. 
Thompson, Hon. Reginald H. Louisville, Ky. 
Thompson, Mrs. Virginia C. Louisville, Ky. 
Thruston, R. C. Ballard. Louisville, Ky. 
Tice, William Wallace. Mayfield, Ky. 
Tipton, French. Richmond, Ky. 
Todd, Thomas. Shelbyville, Ky. 
Todd, George D. Louisville, Ky. 

* Todd, Harry Innes. Frankfort, Ky. 

Todd, Dr. Charles Henry. Owensboro, Ky. 
Toney, Hon. Sterling B. Louisville, Ky. 
Towles, Walter Alves. Geneva, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



198 The KenttLcky Centenary. 

Triplett, Robert Samuel. Owensboro, Ky. 
Tuttle, John William. Monticello, Ky. 
Turner, Hon. Thomas. Mount Sterling, Ky. 
Turner, Hon. Henry F. Henderson, Ky. 
Turner, George Britain. Harlan C. H., Ky. 
Twyman, Broadus Wickliffe. Beattyville, Ky. 
Tyler, Hon. Henry S. Louisville, Ky. 

* Varnon, Thomas W. Stanford, Ky. 

Walker, E. G. Columbia, Ky. 
Walker, E. Dudley. Hartford, Ky. 
Walker, Captain David C. Franklin, Ky. 
Walker, James Hickman. Marion, Ky. 
Walker, Scott. Burksville, Ky. 
Walker, Robert C. Marion, Ky. 
Wallace, Joseph McDowell. Danville, Ky. 
Wallace, Edmund Martin. Versailles, Ky. 
Watts, Robert A. Louisville, Ky. 
Watterson, Hon. Henry. Louisville, Ky. 

* Watterson, Hon. Harvey M. Louisville, Ky. 
Walton, Dr. Claiborne J. Munfordville, Ky. 
Walton, William P. Stanford, Ky. 

Ward, Hon. John Ouincy. Cynthiana, Ky. 
Ward, Colonel John H. Louisville, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



Wednesday, Jtme /, i8g2. 199 

Ward, Hon. A. Harry. Cynthiana, Ky. 
Warfield, William. Lexington, Ky. 
Warfield, Ethelbert D. Easton, Pcnn. 
Waddy, William Lewis. Waddy, Ky. 
Webb, Charles Henry. Smithland, Ky. 
Webb, Benjamin J. Louisville, Ky. 
Weissinger, Rozel. Louisville, Ky. 
Weir, James. Owensboro, Ky. 
Welch, John Harrison. Nicholasville, Ky. 
White, Hon. John U. Loui-sville, Ky. 
Whitaker, Hon. Emery, Maysville, Ky. 
Whitsett, Rev. Wm. H. Louisville, Ky. 
Withers, J. S. Cynthiana, Ky. 
Withers, John Benton. Muldraugh, Ky. 
Willis, Harry Payne. Brooksville, Ky. 
Willis, Hon. Albert S. Louisville, Ky. 
Wilson, Robert Burns. Frankfort, Ky. 
Wilson, Wm. Boone. Eminence, Ky. 
' Wilson, John Samuel. Westport, Ky. 
Wilson, Hon. John Henry. Barboursville, Ky. 
Wilson, Miss Annie E. Louisville, Ky. 
Williams, Rev. John Augustus. Harrodsburg, Ky. 
Williams, Mordecai. Normal, Ky. 
Williams, Hon. John S. Mount Sterling, Ky. 
Winchester, Hon. Boyd. Louisville, Ky. 

* Deceased. 



^^2/Kr 



200 The Kentucky Centenary. 

Wickliffe, John D. Bardstown, Ky. 
Wilhoit, E. B. Grayson, Ky. 
Winfree, William Powhatan. Hopkinsville, Ky. 
Wood, Henry Cleveland. Harrodsburg, Ky. 
Woolley, Colonel Robert W. Louisville, Ky. 
Wortham, James Samuel. Litchfield, Ky. 
Wright, Daniel Webster. Bowling Green, Ky. 
Wright, James Clayton. Newport, Ky. 
Wright, Miss Jean. Louisville, Ky. 

Yandell, Dr. David W. Louisville, Ky. 
Yandell, Mrs. Louise Elliston. Louisville, Ky. 
Yandell, Miss Enid. Louisville, Ky. 
Yeaman, Malcolm. Henderson, Ky. 
Yerkes, John Watson. Danville, Ky. 
Young, Rev. John D. Louisville, Ky. 
Young, Colonel Bennett H. Louisville, Ky. 
* Young, Hon. Van Buren. Mount Sterling, Ky. 
Young, Rev. Wm. C. Danville, Ky. 
Yost, Hon. Wm. H. Greenville, Ky. 



The officers of the Filson Club will be thankful for 
the correction of any errors or omissions in the foregoing 
list of members. The president or secretary should at 
once be advised of any death or change of residence 
among the members. 

* Deceased. 



ysAR 11314 



PUBLICATIONS OF THE FILSON CLUB. 



1. JOHN FILSON, the first historian of Kentucky. An account of his life and writings 
prepared from original sources. By Reuben T. Durrett. Illustrated by a- production of a newly 
discovered portrait, a fac-simile of one of his letters, and a photo-lithographic fac-simile of his 
original map of Kentucky, which was issued with his "History of Kentucke," in 1784. 4to. 
pp. '32. 1884. Out of print. 

2. THE WILDERNESS ROAD. A description of the routes of travel by which the pioneers 
and early settlers first came to Kentucky. By Thomas Speed. Map. 4to. pp.85. 1886. 2 00 

3. THE PIONEER PRESS OF KENTUCKY: From the printing of the first paper west 
of the Alleghanies, August 11, 1787, to the establishment of the "Daily Press," in l83o. By 
William Henry Perrin. Illustrated with a fac-simile of " The Farmer's Library," and " The 
Kentucke Gazette," a cut of the first printing house, and portraits of John Bradford, Shadrach 
Penn, and George D. Prentice. 4to. pp. 93. 1888. 2 00 

4. THE LIFE AND TIMES OF JUDGE CALEB WALLACE. Some time a Justice of 
the Court of Appeals of the State of Kentucky. By William H. Whitsitt. 4to. pp. I5l. 
1888. 2 00. 

5. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, Louisville, Ky. Prepared 
for the semi-centennial celebration, October 6, 1889. By Reuben T. Durrett. Illustrated with 
two plates of the church and portrait of Rev. William Jackson and Rev. Edmund T. Perkins, 
D.D. Small 4to. pp. 75. 1889. 2 00 

6. THE POLITICAL BEGINNINGS OF KENTUCKY. A narrative of public events 
bearing on the history of that State up to the time of its admission into the American Union. 
By John Mason Brown. Portrait. 4to. pp. 263. 1889. 2 50 

7. THE CENTENARY OF KENTUCKY. Proceedings at the celebration by the Filson 
Club, Wednesday, June 1, 1892, of the one hundredth anniversary of the admission of Ken- 
tucky as an independent State into the Federal Union. Containing the historical address of Col. 
Reuben T. Durrett, the poem of Henry T. Stanton, with portrait of each, the general proceedings, 
a sketch of the Filson Club, and list of members. 4to. pp. 200. 1892. 2 00 

FOR SALE BY 

ROBERT CLARKE & CO., Cincinnati, O. 
JOHN P. MORTON & CO., Louisville, Ky. 



